Bree's World Tour
by AnimeFanBree
Summary: Sequel to Bree's Hogwarts Experience. Watch as our favorite chaos maker travels the globe while on the run from Death Eater. Children will be tramatized, hair dye will be used, bystanders will stare in confusion.
1. Wedding

Bree's newest cousin, Christina Smith, had blue-grey eyes and a tuft of black hair on her head. She was tiny,with little fingers and toes and limbs that she liked to fail about in an attempt to understand how they moved. She terrified Bree to no end. She was small and completely dependent on others to care for her, just being in the same room with her made Bree panic.

Alice had a similar reaction to the family's new addition ,but there was also an underlying sadness. The day Alice had been "born" had been filled with confusion, terror, and death. Except that she hadn't really been born at all, just thrust into existence with fourteen years' worth of memories in a brand new body. A body that grown in the two years she had been alive until she resembled a seventeen year old. That meant that she had seventeen years' worth of memories but only two years of memories that actually belonged to Chrissy would have a childhood and parents and would actually get to meet the rest of the family.

Vince and Lisa loved their little girl, but still made time for Alice when they could which, between the needs of the new baby, Vince's therapy, and the effort to reclaim lost territory, was difficult but appreciated.

Leo spent the most time with Alice. He taught her about his specialty, smuggling. He was one of the few people that saw the differences in personality that Alice and Bree were developing and he was working to encourage it. The world really didn't need more than one Lisa per generation.

* * *

George took Bree out to dinner on her birthday. He took her to a fancy restaurant and afterwards they went for a walk. It was rather uneventful… for them anyway. They were too distracted by each other to notice Ben and his camera being put into the back of a squadcar.

* * *

A few days after Bree's birthday Leo and Alice were watching while Bree was combing through every newspaper she could get her hands on looking for information about... something she wouldn't elaborate on

"Any idea what she's looking for?" Leo asked his sister a few days after Bree's birthday. Alice shrugged.

"Something to do with the Doctor. I don't really remember what. I don't think she does either." she replied.

"I found it!" Bree exclaimed, holding a newspaper up over her head. Alice took the paper from Bree.

"Harry Saxon..." Alice mumbled, frowning.

"Wait for it..." Bree said. Alice looked through a few of the other papers Bree had laid out. Her eyes widened.

"Holy shit!" Alice shouted. Leo looked around wildly to make sure that his mother hadn't heard because he would be blamed for his sister's curseing just like he had been blamed when Bree had said her first curse word. It wasn't his fault, how was he supposed to know she had been listening at the time? He calmed down when he remembered that Lisa was out "running errands."

"We're all going to die!" Alice continued.

"We probably already did." Bree replied.

"What are you two talking about?" Leo asked.

"Harry Saxon, aka, the Master, and his paradox machine." Alice answered.

"Which has been deactivated." Bree added.

"You sure?" Alice asked.

"Harry Saxon is dead." Bree replied

"So we missed the end of the world, everything worked out, and we didn't have to do anything." Alice stated.

"Exactly." Bree said.

"Sweet." Alice said.

"I have no idea what's going on." Leo complained.

* * *

"THE STARS ARE GOING OUT" MORE DEATHS TO COME? Read the headline of the Daily Prophet. Bree skimmed the article. Apparently Slughorn had taken her statement to mean that "the wizarding world's brightest stars" were in danger and told the reporters as much.

Why couldn't anyone look at the sky and go "Oh yeah, the stars ARE going out!"? But no, they had to look for some nonexistent deeper meaning. Idiots.

There had been a breakout from Azkaban. There had been no announcement by the ministry or anything in the media but once Death Eaters that were supposed to be locked up started turning up as victims of battle it became rather clear.

"They're getting more daring." Lisa said to Bree as they sat in her office. "They'll have the government under their control soon, and once that happens things will become problematic."

"Problematic?" Bree echoed.

"Other nations noticing, Voldemort deciding to take over other countries, all-out war, that sort of thing." Lisa explained offhandedly.

"Oh, is that all?" Bree replied sarcastically. Lisa ignored her.

"My forces are divided between stopping Vodemort and reclaiming lost business from our competitors." she explained. "We're having difficulty doing both with our available manpower, we need to recruit some more allies, that's where you come in.

"Me?" Bree questioned.

"You're going to be our new recruiter." Lisa stated. "You'll travel around calling in old favors and collecting old debts, maybe making new friends."

"Traveling where exactly?" Bree inquired.

"Everywhere. There are many people outside of England that owe-" Bree cut her aunt off.

"You're getting rid of me." she accused.

"You're being targeted. The wizarding world believes that you are a seer, more importantly, Voldemort believes you are a seer." Lisa explained. "He wants is forces to take you alive. Greyback has ordered his pack to make you suffer first. You're leaving after the wedding."

She left no room for arguement.

Line line line

Bree wrote to Neville and Luna telling them that she would not be returning to Hogwarts that year and, consequently, neither would Ben.

Harry had been moved from Grimmauld Place to the Burrow. The trip had been uneventful. Mad-eye had come up with a convoluted plan involving decoys polyjuiced to look like Harry, broomsticks, and thestrals. Sirius came up with a much saner plan of polyjuicing Harry to look like a nondescript business man and taking him to the Burrow by car.

Moody seemed rather let down.

Tonks and Remus got married in a small ceremony. They wouldn't let Sirius blow as much money as he could on the wedding, despite his insistance that he wanted to do something special for his favorite cousin. They did let Sirius be best man though, a move that Remus later regreted. Sirius had gone all out for the bachelor party. The day after the party turned out kind of like the movie "The Hangover" only in Bristol. The party had been in London.

* * *

It had been two years and Bree's idea n of "making space bigger on the inside" had finally been realized. Sort of. Two runic tattoos, each the size of a postage stamp, on each of Bree's wrists and she had a storage space that could store about a hundred pounds of material. It worked by running magic through the runes and thinking of the item you wanted to store or retrieve.

* * *

Harry's birthday was the day before the wedding. A dinner was held at the burrow. Several tables were placed end to end in the garden. Fred and George bewitched a number of purple lanterns all emblazoned with a large number 17, to hang in midair over the guests.

Hermione made purple and gold streamers erupt from the end of her wand and drape themselves artistically over the trees and bushes.

"Nice," said Ron, as with one final flourish of her wand. "You've really got an eye for that sort of thing."

"Thank you, Ron!" said Hermione, looking both pleased and a little confused

"Out of the way, out of the way!" sang Mrs. Weasley, coming through the gate with what appeared to be a giant, beach-ball-sized Snitch floating in front of her. Seconds later Harry realized that it was his birthday cake, which Mrs. Weasley was suspending with her wand, rather than risk carrying it over the uneven ground. When the cake had finally landed in the middle of the table, Harry said, "That looks amazing, Mrs. Weasley."

"Oh, it's nothing, dear," she said fondly.

By seven o'clock all the guests had arrived, led into the house by Fred and George, who had waited for them at the end of the lane. Hagrid had honored the occasion by wearing his best, and horrible, hairy brown suit. Although Lupin smiled as he shook Harry's hand, he looked rather unhappy. It was all very odd; Tonks, beside him, looked simply radiant.

"Happy birthday, Harry," she said, hugging him tightly.

"Seventeen, eh!" said Hagrid as he accepted a bucket-sized glass of wine from Fred. "Six years ter the day since we met, Harry, d'yeh remember it?"

"Vaguely," said Harry, grinning up at him. "Didn't you smash down the front door, give Dudley a pig's tail, and tell me I was a wizard?"

"I forge' the details," Hagrid chortled. "All righ', Ron, Hermione?"

"We're fine," said Hermione. "How are you?"

"Ar, not bad. Bin busy, we got some newborn unicorns. I'll show yeh when yeh get back" Hagrid rummaged in his pocket. "Here. Harry "couldn't think what ter get teh, but then I remembered this." He pulled out a small, slightly furry drawstring pouch with a long string, evidently intended to be worn around the neck. "Mokeskin. Hide anythin' in there an' no one but the owner can get it out. They're rare, them."

"Hagrid, thanks!"

"'S'nothin'," said Hagrid with a wave of a dustbin-lid-sized hand. "An' there's Charlie! Always liked him, hey! Charlie!"

Charlie approached, running his hand slightly ruefully over his new, brutally short haircut. He was shorter than Ron, thickset, with a number of burns and scratches up his muscled arms.

"Hi, Hagrid, how's it going?"

"Bin meanin' ter write fer ages. How's Norbert doin'?"

"Norbert?" Charlie laughed. "The Norwegian Ridgeback? We call her Norberta now."

"Wha ¨Norbert's a girl?"

"Oh yeah," said Charlie.

"How can you tell?" asked Hermione.

"They're a lot more vicious," said Charlie. He looked over his shoulder and dropped his voice. "Wish Dad would hurry up and get here. Mum's getting edgy."

They all looked over at Mrs. Weasley. She was trying to talk to Madame Delacour while glancing repeatedly at the gate.

"I think we'd better start without Arthur," she called to the garden at large after a moment or two. "He must have been held up at ¨C oh!"

They all saw it at the same time: a streak of light that came flying across the yard and onto the table, where it resolved itself into a bright silver weasel, which stood on its hind legs and spoke with Mr. Weasley's voice.

"Minister of Magic coming with me."

The Patronus dissolved into thin air, leaving Fleur's family peering in astonishment at the place where it had vanished.

"We shouldn't be here," said Lupin at once. "Harry ¨C I'm sorry ¨C I'll explain some other time¨C"

He seized Tonks's wrist and pulled her away; they reached the fence, climbed over it, and vanished from sight. Mrs. Weasley looked bewildered.

"The Minister, but why? I don't understand."

But there was no time to discuss the matter; a second later, Mr. Weasley had appeared out of thin air at the gate, accompanied by Rufus Scrimgeour, instantly recognizable by his mane of grizzled hair.

The two newcomers marched across the yard toward the garden and the lantern-lit table, where everybody sat in silence, watching them draw closer. As Scrimgeour came within range of the lantern light. Harry saw that he looked much older than the last time that had met, scraggy and grim.

"Sorry to intrude," said Scrimgeour, as he limped to a halt before the table. "Especially as I can see that I am gate-crashing a party."

His eyes lingered for a moment on the giant Snitch cake.

"Many happy returns."

"Thanks," said Harry.

"I require a private word with you," Scrimgeour went on. "Also with Mr. Ronald Weasley and Miss Hermione Granger."

"Us?" said Ron, sounding surprised. "Why us?"

"I shall tell you that when we are somewhere more private," said Scrimgeour. "Is there such a place?" he demanded of Mr. Weasley.

"Yes, of course," said Mr. Weasley, who looked nervous. "The, er, sitting room, why don't you use that?"

"You can lead the way," Scrimgeour said to Ron. "There will be no need for you to accompany us, Arthur."

Mr. Weasley exchanged a worried look with Mrs. Weasley as Harry, Ron, and Hermione stood up. From then on there was awkward small talk until they heard raised voices from inside the house and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley went to investigate.

It turned out that the Minister had come to release the contents of Dumbledore's will. He had left Hermione a book entitled ""The Tales of Beedle the Bard", Ron received Dumbledore's Deluminator, and Harry got the first Golden Snitch he had ever caught. Harry was also supposed to receive the Sword of Gryffindor but the Ministry said that it wasn't his to give away.

The three objects were passed from hand to hand. Everyone exclaimed over the Deluminator and The Tales of Beedle the Bard and lamented the fact that Scrimgeour had refused to pass on the sword, but none of them could offer any suggestion as to why Dumbledore would have left Harry an old Snitch. As Mr. Weasley examined the Deluminator for the third of fourth time, Mrs. Weasley said tentatively, "Harry, dear, everyone's awfully hungry we didn't like to start without you... Shall I serve dinner now?"

They all ate rather hurriedly and then after a hasty chorus of "Happy Birthday" and much gulping of cake, the party broke up. Hagrid, who was invited to the wedding the following day, but was far too bulky to sleep in the overstretched Burrow, left to set up a tent for himself in a neighboring field.

Bree finally got a moment alone with George.

"You've been awfully quiet tonight." George commented.

"I'm leaving the country soon." Bree replied.

"Another family reunion?" George asked.

"No. Lisa's moving me overseas under the pretense of "recruiting more allies" but really she thinks my chances of survival are better if I'm a moving target." Bree answered.

"Well," George began "I guess we'd better make the time we have left together count."

* * *

The wedding was gorgeous. A great white marquee had been set up in the orchard, awaiting the arrival of the wedding guests. Fred, George, Ron, and Harry, who had taken some polyjuice potion so that he looked like a red-headed muggle boy that lived in town, were charged with showing people to their seats.

White-robed waiters and a golden jacketed band were "waiting in the wings" as it were. The entrance to the marquee revealed rows and rows of fragile golden chairs set on either side of a long purple carpet. The supporting poles were entwined with white and gold flowers. Fred and George had fastened an enormous bunch of golden balloons over the exact point where Bill and Fleur would shortly become husband and wife. Outside, butterflies and bees were hovering lazily over the grass and hedgerow.

Lisa's personal body guard, Fiona, was Bree's escort for the event. The Irishwoman was dressed in a green ensemble that showed off her curves and Bree wore blue.

The very last guest to arrive was Victor Krum who caused quite a commotion among the guests, especially among Fleur's Veela cousins. The wedding could finally begin.

A sense of jittery anticipation had filled the warm tent, the general murmuring broken by occasional spurts of excited laughter. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley strolled up the aisle, smiling and waving at relatives; Mrs. Weasley was wearing a brand-new set of amethyst colored robes with a matching hat.

A moment later Bill and Charlie stood up at the front of the marquee, both wearing dress robes, with larger white roses in their buttonholes; Fred wolf-whistled and there was an outbreak of giggling from the veela cousins. Then the crowd fell silent as music swelled from what seemed to be the golden balloons.

A great collective sigh issued from the assembled witches and wizards as Monsieur Delacour and Fleur came walking up the aisle, Fleur gliding, Monsieur Delacour bouncing and beaming. Fleur was wearing a very simple white dress and seemed to be emitting a strong, silvery glow. While her radiance usually dimmed everyone else by comparison, today it beautified everybody it fell upon. Ginny and Gabrielle, both wearing golden dresses, looked even prettier than usual and once Fleur had reached for him, Bill did not look as though he had ever met Fenrir Greyback.

"Ladies and gentlemen," said a slightly singsong voice, it was the same small, tufty-hired wizard who had presided at Dumbledore's funeral, now standing in front of Bill and Fleur. "We are gathered here today to celebrate the union of two faithful souls..."

"Yes, my tiara set off the whole thing nicely," said Auntie Muriel in a rather carrying whisper. "But I must say, Ginevra's dress is far too low cut."

Ginny glanced around, grinning, winked at Harry, then quickly faced the front again. "Do you, William Arthur, take Fleur Isabelle...?"

In the front row, Mrs. Weasley and Madame Delacour were both sobbing quietly into scraps of lace. Trumpetlike sounds from the back of the marquee told everyone that Hagrid had taken out one of his own tablecloth-sized handkerchiefs.

"...then I declare you bonded for life."

The tufty-haired wizard waved his hand high over the heads of Bill and Fleur and a shower of silver stars fell upon them, spiraling around their now entwined figures. As Fred and George led a round of applause, the golden balloons overhead burst. Birds of paradise and tiny golden bells flew and floated out of them, adding their songs and chimes to the din.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" called the tufty-haired wizard. "If you would please stand up!"

They all did so, Auntie Muriel grumbling audibly; he waved his wand again. The chairs on which they had been sitting rose gracefully into the air as the canvas walls of the marquee vanished, so that they stood beneath a canopy supported by golden poles, with a glorious view of the sunlit orchard and surrounding countryside. Next, a pool of molten gold spread from the center of the tent to form a gleaming dance floor; the hovering chairs grouped themselves around small, white-clothed tables, which all floated gracefully back to earth round it, and the golden-jacketed band trooped toward a podium.

The waiters popped up on all sides, some hearing silver trays of pumpkin juice, butterbeer, and firewhisky, others tottering piles of tarts and sandwiches.

Bree and Fiona found seats at a table. Bree spotted Luna and a man that was presumably her father at a nearby table. They were both dressed in yellow. Luna had a sunflower in her hair.

The band had begun to play, Bill and Fleur took to the dance floor first, to great applause; after a while, Mr. Weasley led Madame Delacour onto the floor, followed by Mr. Weasley and Fleur's father.

Luna was swaying in time to the waltzlike tune, and a few seconds later she stood up and glided onto the dance floor, where she revolved on the spot, quite alone, eyes closed and waving her arms.

George invited Bree to dance. Fiona kept a close eye on them while still being aware of everything else going on.

Bree had been to a wedding before when she was rather small. She had been the flower girl and only had vague memories of a church and a slice of cake. It had definitely hadn't included a wedding cake topped with two model phoenixes that took flight when the cake was cut, or bottles of champagne that floated unsupported through the crowd.

As the evening drew in, and moths began to swoop under the canopy, now lit with floating golden lanterns, the revelry became more and more uncontained. Fred had long since disappeared into the darkness with a pair of Fleur's cousins; Charlie, Hagrid, and a squat wizard in a purple porkpie hat were singing "Odo the Hero" in the corner. Bree and George slipped out into the garden.

They sat quietly. George had his arm around Bree and she was leaning on his chest.

"I don't want this moment to ever end." Bree whispered.

"Neither do I." George mumbled.

Time must move forward. No moment, no matter how perfect, can last forever.

Something large and silver shot towards the marquee. Bree and George rushed over. They heard the loud, deep, slow voice of Kingsley Shacklebolt.

"The Ministry has fallen. Scrimgeour is dead. They are coming."

Many people were only just realizing that something strange had happened; heads were still turning toward the silver cat as it vanished. Silence spread outward in cold ripples from the place where the Patronus had landed. Then somebody screamed.

Guests were sprinting in all directions; many were Disapparating. Protective enchantments that had been placed around the Burrow had broken.

"Perception filters." Bree said. George nodded. Bree gave him a quick kiss.

"Be safe." George said before they both vanished into the crowd.

Bree quickly found Fiona, or Fiona found her. Bree hadn't yet activated her perception filter when Fiona grabbed her and apparated away.

* * *

**The next chapter will stray completely from the Harry Potter books. Crossovers will come later. SOme will be a little more in depth than others.**


	2. Run

**No Unformal Sorrelle, this Fiona is not the young from burn notice. I've mentioned her before, way back in fourth year when Bree was in the hospital wing. She has red hair, green eyes, and a brother named Owen.**

* * *

Bree blinked in confusion, wondering what the hell had just happened. She was sitting on the edge of the bed in a cheap motel room in Cardriff. Her hair had been dyed red.

"What the hell? Why are we in Cardriff?" she asked.

"The rift energy will put a stop to any magical means of detection. The hair dye is to throw off any visual search. They'll be looking for a blond." Fiona explained.

"Cardriff…" Bree said thoughtfully. She smirked. "Lisa wants me to recruit allies. Might as well start now."

One can of spray paint later and a wall in the town center bore the words "TORCHWOOD: Captain Jack Harkness has every STD known to man, and several known to dolphins."

The next morning people were gawking at the words. A dark haired woman and a man in a suit were laughing. A good looking American man was trying to shoo people away saying things like "Nothing to see here. Move along." Then he would turn to the man and woman and hiss something along the lines of "Shut up, it's not funny."

Bree hesistated a bit before she walked up to him, Fiona close behind. The man was just wrong, like he wasn't supposed to exist.

"Captain Jack Harkness I presume?" she said. The man, Jack, turned.

"Hello ladies!" he said.

"I have a boyfriend."Bree deadpanned.

"If he's as good looking as you are, I'd like to meet him too." Jack replied.

"I could kill you." Bree stated. "You probably wouldn't stay dead for very long, but the point still stands."

"How do you know about that?" the woman asked.

"Same way I know that it's a very good thing that Harry Saxon is dead. Psychic brain parasite. I know a lot of things that I wish I didn't, things that happened in the past, things that never happened thanks to some time meddling, and things that have yet to happen." Bree answered.

"We should talk." Jack said seriously.

* * *

It was nice being able to talk freely about the Doctor and the TARDIS and aliens. It was nice to believed, instead of written off as crazy, or a liar, or as just making things up. She was talking to people that had experienced things similar to what she had so they were willing to accept that humanity was in danger from certain members of a hidden sub-species of humanity.

"This Voldemort guy sounds a lot like a Dalek." Jack commented.

"More like Davros really." Bree replied darkly. "Daleks were all designed to destroy. Voldemort made a choice."

* * *

After the impromptu meeting with Torchwood, Fiona gave Bree something important. It was goblin made, not a fanciful decoration like the tiara Fleur had worn at her wedding, but a tool used by goblins to make international business deals. It was a simple golden key hanging from a chain. It was a Translation Key. It worked a lot like the universal translator on the TARDIS allowing the user to understand languages they didn't know and to be understood by others.

In other words, when Bree wore the key she would hear any foreign language as English and someone whose native language was say French would hear anything Bree said as their native tongue, which was convenient since Bree had been put on a boat headed for France. Before bidding free farewell Fiona gave Bree a list of everyone who owed Lisa something.

There was a man in Paris named Quint who dealt in alien technologies. He had gotten in over his head with the Russians and was saved by Lisa's employees. There were others in France that owed a debt of some sort, but they had little to offer the Third Option, which was Bree's number one concern. The other debts could wait.

It was late by the time Bree made it to Paris from the coastal city she had been dropped in. Bree found a place to stay for the night and went to see Quint the next morning. Bree was a bit apprehensive; she had never done something like this before on her own. She knocked on the door.

There was a shuffling noise from inside. A thin man answered the door. He looked to be in his early thirties and had scraggly brown hair.

"Are you Quint?" Bree asked.

"Who wants to know?" The man asked gruffly.

"The niece of Lisa Smith." Bree replied.

The man sighed. "Yeah, I'm Quint." He said.

"I'm here to collect what you owe." Bree told him.

"I figured as much." Quint muttered. He moved out of the doorway and let Bree in. His home was littered with scraps of technology that were either being put together or taken apart.

"You're English right? I may have some tea around here somewhere." Quint said.

"That's not necessary. I'm just here to collect then I'll be on my way." Bree stated.

"I don't have much. I don't deal in the big stuff anymore, I mostly arrange deals between a buyer and seller." Quint explained.

"So you're a broker." Bree replied.

"You could say that." Quint said.

"Good," Bree began. "Then you can be our broker."

* * *

Bree put Quint in contact with some of Lisa's employees. It would later prove to be a good move since Quint was able to negotiate low prices on useful technology.

After she was done with Quint Bree decided to the Louvre. If she had made it there she would have been surprised to see that the Mona Lisa was smaller than she imagined, with all the hype you'd think it would be bigger. But she didn't make it there for two reasons. First she got lost, than she was found.

Bree cried out as she was slammed painfully into a brick wall in a back alley.

"Clever girl, going through Cardriff." Said the man that had Bree pinned. He reminded her Greyback, feral looking, obviously a member of Fenrir's pack. There was another man with him, much cleaner cut, probably there to make sure that the werewolf didn't kill Bree before they could take her to Voldemort.

"Not clever enough though. The Dark Lord as feelers out everywhere, it wasn't that hard to pick up your scent." The werewolf said. He was pushing on Bree's throat, cutting of her air and all she could think about was getting away.

The right combination of fear, desperation, and adrenalin can allow people to perform amazing feats, like lifting a car off of someone. In Bree's case there was also magic in the mix. When she was learning from Ben Bree had great strides towards mastering her animagus form, but she hadn't perfected it. She hadn't perfected it, not until that terrifying moment.

The werewolf lost his grip, his prey was suddenly much smaller. Bree, who was now a blond cat with purplish-grey stripes, ran as soon as her paws hit the ground. She slipped into a narrow space between two buildings and hightailed it out of the country to Germany.

* * *

Bree woke up in a cramped hotel room. She was sore and bruised from being slammed the wall the day before. She had purchased a wig to make it look like she had long brown hair. She put on a light blue sundress, sandals, a wide brimmed sunhat, and a pair of sunglasses with wide lenses. A little bit of makeup to cover the tattoos on her wrist and the scars on her hand ("I must not tell lies" would be forever engraved there) and some overwhelming flowery smelling perfume to drown out her scent and she was ready to go out.

She was in Munich. It was a beautiful city and she had a good time playing the tourist and taking in all the sights. She was more interested in the historical location than anything else; one of her ancestors had emigrated from Munich more than a century before. When the sun began to set she took off her sunglasses and she walked around a bit more.

She ran into a rather strange group, well to be more accurate a member of the group ran into her. Bree found herself being knocked to the ground by an airheaded young man with brown hair. There was a strange curl in his hair.

"Ve! I'm-a so sorry!" he exclaimed with an Italian accent as he helped Bree up.

"It's alright." Bree answered as she brushed dirt off of her dress. The man was accompanied by a dark haired Asian and a German with slicked back blond hair and blue eyes. The German was staring at Bree with a look of pure terror on his face and he may have muttered something like "devil woman" under his breath.

Bree's strategy of adopting a style that was practically the opposite of what she preferred and wearing overpowering perfumes was working. She didn't fully relax but she found her stay in Munich to be rather enjoyable. After a few days in the city the Death Eaters finally caught up with her. Sort of.

Bree spotted them before they saw her. The werewolf caught a whiff of her perfume and started sneezing, giving Bree time to get away unnoticed. She took a train down to Rome and stayed the night in a hostel. She stuck with the disguise she had worn in Munich but was forced to tone it down on the perfume because-OH MY GOD BEES! Bees, as you most likely know, like flowers and are attracted to sweet smelling things. Most perfumes smell sweet, so yeah…

At the hostel Bree shared a bunk bed with a twenty-two-year-old named Lori. She was nice enough, if somewhat excitable, and invited Bree, who was using the name Emily, to go sightseeing with her. They visited the Coliseum, which was home to the ghosts of many gladiators that Lori and most other tourists couldn't see.

Lori was quite interested in the architecture and Bree could see why. The buildings, aqueducts, bridges, and statues that were left from ancient and medieval times were quite impressive. They got lost in the side streets, nearly got mowed down by ids playing, ate some good food, found their way again and returned to the hostel tired but happy.

The next day Lori invited "Emily" out again, but she had to decline. She was meeting a friend who was only free for one day she explained, but she would be free the next day. Lori was disappointed, but understanding as she left for the day.

Bree was nervous and apprehensive. She was meeting someone, but it wasn't a friend. It was someone from the list of people that owed Lisa, but one does not simply walk in on an Italian Mafia Boss without warning. She had arranged the meeting on the phone while on the train from Munich.

She was running early and had time to make a stop. It was unplanned, but when Bree saw the church she went in. She sat in one of the pews, and she prayed.

* * *

**I've been sick and plagued by writer's block, so I haven't been very productive. We saw a little bit of crossing over with Torchwood/Doctor Who and Hetalia, but nothing really in depth yet. There will be some bigger stuff going on later, especially once she gets to Japan, because, you know, **_**Japan**_**.**

**I'm bouncing around some ideas for Transformers, but I'm a bit conflicted on how involved Bree should get, ideas?**


	3. First Blood

"_Hey God, it's me."_

"_I know it's been awhile…"_

"_But please help me…"_

"_I don't want to die."_

* * *

Bree was terrified. Seriously scared. She was in a room full of men with guns and no back up. She would have to be very careful choosing her words if she wanted this to work. She took a deep breath and gathered her resolve. She was the next in line, the heir to the throne, she could do this.

"I'm surprised that you came alone." said the most important man in the room, Boss Vito. He was sitting behind a desk with a bodyguard at each of his sides. A third bodyguard pulled out a chair for Bree and she sat down.

"I've heard stories of your Aunt's… protectiveness." Boss Vito continued.

"She made sure that I could defend myself before I left home." Bree stated.

"I see." Vito replied. "I understand that there has been an upheaval."

"Yes. The situation has become quite tumultuous. Violence has erupted and innocents are getting hurt." Bree explained.

"Such a situation must be quite hard for your family." Vito said. Translation: I know you've lost power.

"We had a bit of a hard time but we've recovered." Bree stated. Translation: We've got our power back.

"And yet you've come to me for help." Vito pointed out.

Bree frowned. "I've come to see that you honor your debt." She said. Her body language added more. 'You wouldn't want people to think you couldn't be trusted, would you?' It said.

"We're at a stalemate at the moment, and if the conflict continues it could spill out to others countries. It would be better if it were stopped before more families needlessly suffer." Bree continued. Before your family suffers.

Boss Vito was silent for one agonizing moment. "Yes, that would be ideal." He finally said.

* * *

Oh, god. Oh, god. Oh, god. She had done it. She had done it. She had successfully gotten help from the mob. She was so happy she could throw up.

* * *

The next day Lori took "Emily" out to meet with some cute guys Lori had met the day before. There were four of them. A blond Frenchman, a brown haired Spaniard, an albino that claimed to be from Prussia and… wait… wasn't that the guy who knocked her down in Munich? No, he looked a little different and the personality was way off. He kept yelling at the Spaniard and yelling things like "tomato bastard" and "who asked you to-a visit anyway" and the Spaniard would respond with brotherly affection. It was a rather interesting family dynamic, to say the least.

The four young men introduced themselves as Francis, Tony, Gilbert, and Lovino, respectively. They took Lori and Emily out to tour the city, providing interesting historical facts and openly flirting. Lori flirted right back.

Gilbert took a peculiar interest in Bree.

"Do I have something on my face?" Bree asked when she caught Gilbert staring.

"You just look like someone I used to know." He answered, blushing slightly. Up ahead of them Lori and Francis were laughing at the antics of Tony and Lovino.

"Oh." Bree said, not sure how to reply. The tone of his voice had spoken of love and loss.

"Ja. We used to have fun together. We would drink and prank mein bruder." He stated happily, then his expression grew sad. "One day she moved to America and I never saw her again."

"I was born in America." Bree said. She had no idea what had compelled her to say it, it wasn't all that relevant. Gilbert seemed to react favorably, his mood lightening.

"Really?" he inquired. "How long has your family lived in America?"

"Ah, well, that depends on where you start from." Bree began explained. "Family trees get kind of complicated you know? One line traces back to an Englishman in the pre-revolutionary era, another one goes to a Norwegian, and another goes back to Germany."

"How much do you know about your German ancestors?" Gilbert pressed.

"Not that much." Bree admitted. "I know they came from Munich around the time that the American Civil War was going on and the men got requited by a man from the Union army almost as soon as they stepped off the boat."

Gilbert was oddly silent. Bree looked at him questioningly.

"Vhere did they go?" he said, looking ahead. Bree looked as well, their four companions were gone. The side street they were on was empty. How had they even gotten to such an isolated area without noticing it? Bree mentally berated herself. She had gotten distracted, caught up in conversation, and now she was going to pay for it.

Maybe it had been a charm, or some sort of illusion. Illusions were illegal in Britain but a Death Eater wouldn't care about that. It didn't really matter at the moment, there was time figure it out and come up with a counter measure later. What mattered now was the fact that she had been separated from her companions in the same way a lion might remove a zebra from the rest of the herd and kill it. It was very clever.

Bree and Gilbert were now on a straight and narrow street with a wall on either side. The Death Eater had appeared at one end of the street and the werewolf was at the other. Bree and Gilbert were effectively trapped.

Gilbert put a protective arm around Bree and pulled her close.

"Hand over the girl and you won't get hurt." The Death Eater stated.

"Not going to happen." Gilbert growled.

"I was hoping you would say that!" the werewolf exclaimed with a feral grin. He charged at them. Gilbert swept the werewolf's legs out from underneath him then grabbed Bree by the wrist.

"Run!" he exclaimed, pulling her along. The werewolf was soon in pursuit. There was a crack of apparition as the Death Eater appeared in front of them.

At this point Bree had pulled a gun out of storage.

"Know how to shoot?" she asked.

"Vhere did you get that?" Gilbert muttered as he took the gun from her. Bree only had a spilt second to pull out another weapon as the werewolf charged and the Death Eater began firing curses.

Gilbert dodged the curses expertly and fired two shots as Bree ducked to avoid claw-like fingernails and sharpened teeth while thrusting a silver dagger upward beneath the werewolf's ribcage. Both opponents fell to the ground. The Dead Eater was dead, two shots to the heart, but the werewolf was barely clinging to life.

"Vhy to a vizard and a verevolf vant you dead." Gilbert demanded.

Bree laughed, not taking her eyes off of the werewolf. It was a disturbing, manic sound. She was clutching the dagger and had blood spattered on her hands and dress. She made for a pretty unsettling sight even as her laughter began to cease.

"They don't want me dead, they want me alive." Bree murmured. "Their boss wants me alive, but that doesn't mean they can't torture me a bit."

"Vhy does he want you?" Gilbert pressed. Bree was breathing in short ragged gasps at this point.

"He thinks I can see the future." She said into between gasps. Gilbert put a hand on her shoulder. Bree wrenched her eyes away from the form of the now-dead werewolf to look the albino in the eye.

"You're crying." he stated softly. Bree blinked, was she crying? She hadn't even noticed.

"Is this the first time you've seen someone die?" Gilbert inquired.

"No." Bree replied, "It's just the first time that I… that I've…" she broke down in tears. Gilbert didn't know what to do, so he just held her as she cried.

* * *

Police eventually came and collected the bodies. Gilbert and his friends had connections that made the incident go away very fast. They took Bree to an upscale hotel and let her get cleaned up and changed before they questioned her.

After they got the whole story, and Bree's real name, they were ready to take action and wanted to get someone named Arthur involved until Bree managed to but in and inform them that that Britain's magical government had been completely taken over. This caused a lot of multilingual swearing and a few arguments about whether or not war would have to be declared on England in order to handle the Death Eater problem. Bree was lost on most of it, they kept talking about the countries as if they were people.

They finally decided that the best thing they could do at that time was to get Bree faraway very quickly, before her trail was picked up again. And that's how Bree found herself on a plane to South Africa.

The plane ride gave Bree had a lot time to think. Unfortunately her thoughts were about the man she had killed. She remembered something she had told Draco during their "game." What it boiled down to was that the mechanics of killing someone was easy; it's the emotional and psychological toll that's the problem.

She was going to have to get over it. After all, she was probably going to have to kill again if she wanted to survive.

* * *

Bree had picked South Africa for a reason. There was an arms dealer there that boasted a very unique collection. He didn't owe a debt, but he eagerly let Bree see his collection anyway. Costumers were always welcome and word about Bree was starting to get around. Bree never saw him in person, or heard his real voice. She was shown around by one of his lackeys while he watched everything on CCTV.

His security precautions were understandable. His collection lived up to the rumors and surpassed them. It was far more the usual salvaged space junk that you usually found on the market. There were alien technologies and weaponry and looked like they'd just been delivered from the factory. It was all in pristine condition, except for one piece that had obviously seen better days but Bree still recognized it and knew instantly that it was the most valuable thing in the room.

She bought a few of the more mundane items than got out of there as soon as she could. Cybertronian technology was hard to come by and people were often killed for it. There was no way she was ever going to get involved with anything from that species.

* * *

Bree purposefully traipsed through dangerous territory as she traveled north. It was probably the most stupid move she had ever made. Africa was a dangerous place even if you avoided the war zones, which is what Bree was doing for the most part. What happened in those places was far more disturbing than anything Voldemort had yet to come up with.

The dangerous territory she was going through played host to the big five. The big five got their name by being the most dangerous animals to hunt in all of Africa. Those five were the African elephant, the rhinoceros, the Cape buffalo, the lion, and the leopard. Plus there were many others creatures such as hippos, crocodiles, and venomous snakes. It's like Africa is in a competition with Australia to see which continent has the most animals ready to redefine the word overkill.

But the danger also made Bree's decision to leave an easy to find trail one of the most brilliant ideas she had ever had. Uninhabitable land and animals capable of killing quite easily versus largely unprepared and arrogant Death Eaters? It was easy to see the winner there. Two more Death Eaters were added to list of people that died trying to catch Bree Smith and one had been hospitalized. One fell to a venomous snake and the other to dehydration and a crocodile. The survivor had also suffered from dehydration, Bree came across him and, after having a little bit of "fun" left him for dead.

The deaths were easier to deal with since it hadn't been quite so literally at her hand. She decided that it would be better if she killed from a distance from then on, it would make feeling detached much easier.

Bree felt smug in her victories, the ego she had when she felt she was in full control of everything at Hogwarts was returning. She had overlooked one very important detail until it was looming over her. The full moon was out. Werewolves were after her. She could hear their howls getting closer.

Outrunning werewolves in her animagus form was much easier than as a human. She was smaller and could turn much faster. Normally werewolves don't pay much attention to animals, but these werewolves knew Bree's scent. Their hatred for her was ingrained. She had killed one of their own after all.

Bree was battered and bruised and covered in scratches by the time the sun finally decided to show itself. The werewolves were as weakened and exhausted as she was because of their run thourgh several miles of game preserve. Bree returned to her human form, found a pride of lions and used a few compulsions charms to send them the werewolves' way before changing back and finding a small burrow to sleep in for the day. She fell asleep almost as soon as she was curled up.

* * *

**Omake**

Bree was angry and upset. She was tired of being chased by overconfident morons. She had gotten two of them killed through trickery and deception and a bit of using the heat to her advantage. Bree was smart enough to travel at night at find a cool place to sleep during the day. The Death Eaters weren't as smart and they had quickly become weakened and easier to deal with. The third Death Eater had been a little smarter than his companions and had been better about drinking water.

Bree came across him in the early evening as he rested beneath a tree. Her blue eyes locked with his and she grinned.

"Oh happy day." She said.

When park rangers found the Death Eater he just kept saying the same thing over and over again.

"She's like the sea. She's like the sea."

* * *

The sea has neither meaning nor pity. ~Anton Chekhov

* * *

**I'll leave it up to you to decide what Bree did to the Death Eater.**

**Crossover with Hetalia. AN anime that deals with personified countries.**


	4. Strange Places, Strange Faces

**Today's crossovers: Ranma 1/2, xxxholic, and Mushishi.**

* * *

Bree was awakened rather suddenly by the sound of panicked elephants, gunfire, shouts, and the sound of motor vehicles. Bree leapt from her burrow. Poachers. They were after a young bull elephant that had yet to separate from the herd.

The poachers never knew what hit them. There weapons were wrenched from their hands and flew out of reach. Their Jeeps overturned and they were left sprawled on the ground. Bree used a calming charm on the elephants to keep them from trampling over her. She experimentally patted the young bull on the side and grimaced when her hand came back bloodied. Closer inspection revealed that elephant only seemed to have a minor wound from being grazed.

The poachers could only stare in mute terror and the strange figure before them. It was obviously a woman wrapped from head to toe in a traditional kanga. The once bright fabric had clearly better days as dirty and torn as it was. She had somehow calmed the elephants and the young bull had allowed her to place one of her pale hands on its side. She was upset by the blood and turned to them. What they saw wasn't human.

Blue eyes with catlike pupils, a mouth full of sharp teeth, and claws they were sure hadn't been there a moment before. One hand grasped a stick and the other was covered in blood. As she approached on of the men scurried for a weapon. She flicked the stick in the air and muttered something and the guns floated up into the air before lodging themselves into the branches of a tree.

"Stay put." Bree snapped. The man stilled.

"Who's your leader?" Bree demanded because there was always someone that everyone deferred to in every group. The men were silent.

"Did I not speak clearly enough! Tell me who your leader is before I punish you all!" She snarled.

"Please wait!" exclaimed one of the older men in the group as he stood up. "I am the leader, do not hurt them!"

Bree glared at him. He was keeping a respectful distance. Bree closed the gap and grabbed him by the face, smearing blood on his cheek. Bree was smaller than him but size didn't matter in this case. The fear of the unknown creature that had him in its grip kept him from fighting back.

"You woke me up." She growled. "You led these men to slaughter this herd." She gestured vaguely at the elephants that were starting to wander off. "Their distress woke me up. Why would you do that? For profit? Or did you just decide that driving a species to extinction seemed like fun?"

"Please," the man begged. "We are not bad men. We have families to provide for. We were only going to take the bull."

"And the others would have fought for him. Just as you would fight if someone wanted to kill one of your children and take their teeth." Bree growled.

"We did not mean to awaken you, please, we are sorry. We will not do it again. Let us go, please." The man begged.

"Why should I believe you, the leader of a band of killers?" Bree demanded. "Why shouldn't just end your miserable lives right here!" Bree threats were empty, she was just venting her frustrations, but the men didn't know that.

"We have familes, children! They are waiting for us to return home, please, I beg of you, have mercy." The leader said. Bree scowled and let him go.

"Never do this again." She said before walking into the grass and shifting into her animagus form.

Hours later the men were rescued. Their story spread and it became the tale of a pale spirit with demonic blue eyes, razor sharp teeth, and hands soaked in the blood of anyone who dared attack any animal in that area for their distressed cries disturbed her rest. From then the area was rarely hunted and people passed through it carefully for fear of awakening the spirit. As for the men, some lived off the land, some went to the city, some emigrated, and some found new ways to profit from the elephants through eco-tourism. Bree never knew any of this.

Line line line

After terrifying the poachers, Bree continued moving north. Did some train hopping and made it all the way to Egypt, just barely dodging Death Eaters that were more competent then then the ones that had been sent after her previously.

She decided to get on a flight to India inside of going through the warzone that was the Middle East. She had briefly entertained the thought of going that way because she had some relatives stationed in the area and wouldn't they be surprised if she popped in for a visit. She decided against it because she wasn't that insane yet.

India was, in a word, crowded. Too many people led to too many cars and too many motorcycles and too many little car/motorcycle hybrid things. Since it was crowded it was also loud and Bree felt very out of her element. The bustling cities she had visited before didn't compare to the amount of activity in their Indian counterparts.

One good thing about the crowds was how easy it was to get lost in them. The Death Eaters could never follow her for very long before she'd give them the slip.

Bree made her way to China. She would have rather gone straight to Japan, but the Big List of Debtors said that someone who owed had last be seen at a place called Jusenkyo. So now Bree was tracking down Genma Saotome who had promised his son in exchange for a hot meal. Bree figured that the family business could use the extra manpower in some way.

While Breewas searching for Jusenkyo Bree fell down a cliff and just missed falling into a spring. The area Bree found herself in an area filled with springs that had bamboo poles sticking out of them.

"Ah! It is lucky that you did not fall in the spring of drowned mermaid. It is a tragic tale of a mermaid who drowned in the spring, now anyone who falls in is cursed to take to form of a mermaid." A man said.

Bree stared the springs. They definitely felt off.

"Right." Bree said blandly. "I have some kind of luck." She turned to the man.

"So do live around here?" she asked.

"Yes, I am the Jusenkyo guide." The man answered.

"So you'll know if a man and is son was in this area some time ago. The family name would be Saotome." Bree stated.

"Ah yes!" the guide exclaimed. "They came to train at the springs. I tried to warn them about the danger but it was too late. The father fell into the spring of drowned panda and the son fell into spring of drowned girl." He explained.

Well the certainly made things more interesting.

"Do you know where they are now?" Bree asked.

"Yes. The names of everyone who falls into the springs in written down." The guide answered. And so Bree found herself wandering the Nerima Ward of Tokyo Japan. Her current disguise was a Wa Lolita outfit. The outfit consisted of a kimono top over a petticoat, she was also wearing button up boot and stockings. Everything was colored in various shades of purple except for her wig which was pink and tied back into a bun. She also had purple contacts. She had picked the outfit because it stood out. And it stood out in a way that was not typical of Bree Smith. Most would have exected her to gravitate toward the Punk Lolita style and the colors black and red.

And really, Bree was getting very many looks now that she was in the Nerima ward. There was a reason the magic restrictions in that area were rather loose. A quick "Point Me" had Bree headed in the right direction. She soon found what she was looking for, the Tendo Dojo.

She knocked and a kindly looking young woman answered.

"May I help you?" she asked politely.

"Yes I'm looking for Gen- ah… Saotome Genma." Bree stumbled slightly over her words, remembering that the Japanese put their family names first.

"Oh my. Can I ask what this is about?" the woman inquired.

"The Saotomes owe my family a debt." Bree explained.

"I see." The woman let out a long suffering sigh.

"Why don't you come in, I've just started dinner and I believe that Saotome-san is on the porch play shoji with otou-san." She said, allowing Bree into the house.

"I'm Kasumi, by the way." She mentioned as she led Bree to the back porch. There was a man there but Bree overlooked him and focused on the panda. It was holding a sign. Bree scowled. Written lauguage always took a little longer to translate. After a moment Bree could see that the sign said "No one here but us pandas."

"That won't work. I know about your curse Saotome." Bree stated dryly. The panda grabbed a cup of hot tea and dumped it on its head which caused it to transform into an overweight man in a training Gi.

"That's better. I assume that since you tried to trick me you know why I'm here, but I'll say it again anyway. I am the niece of Lisa Smith and I've come to collect on the debt you owe her." Bree told Genma. He paled quite dramatically at the mention of Lisa's name.

"L-L-Lisa!" he stuttered out fearfully. Bree looked amused.

"Yes. Lisa." She repeated.

"Perhaps this discussion could wait until after dinner. You must be tired from traveling, come sit and rest." Said the man Bree had overlooked, she assumed that he was Kasumi's father. He was probably stalling for his friend but still, free food was free food.

"That sounds lovely. I haven't had the chance to sit down to a home cooked meal in a while." Bree replied. Actually she hadn't had the chance to sit down and eat any sort of meal for a while. She was always on the move and had to eat on the go.

The dinner was rather awkward. After Bree had been introduced to Kasumi's younger sisters, Nabiki and Akane, and Genma's son Ranma, there had been little conversation. Everyone kept glancing at Bree, Akane had broken her chopsticks twice, and Bree, after much frustration, had given up on chopsticks and pulled of fork out of storage.

"So," Nabiki began as Kasumi started clearing plates. "I didn't catch your name, what was it again?"

"I never gave it in the first place, but if you need to call me something I suppose you could call me Eris." Bree replied.

"I see." Said Nabiki. "So Eris, I take it your Ranma's latest fiancée." Bree smirked.

"Whatever gave you that idea? I'm just here to collect a debt." She explained.

"Genma tends to cover his debts by engaging his son to the people he owes." Nabiki stated.

"The terms of the agreement were that his son would be given to my Aunt. There were no specifications beyond that so my Aunt can use him however she wants." Bree stated. "I am here to get Ranma to go to England to do whatever my job my Aunt has planned for him. Besides, I have no interest in marrying him.

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean!" Ranma shouted.

"You're not my type." Bree replied.

"How long would Ranma be expected to work for your Aunt?" Nabiki asked, getting back on topic..

"A time limit was never set. It could be three days, it could be until Ranma dies." Bree answered.

"Would you accept something else?" Genma blurted. Bree turned to him.

"Like what? Money?" Bree thought for a moment. She could use some more money to boost her traveling fund.

"Hm, we may be able to work something out." She said. "How much would you consider your son's life to be worth?"

"What!" the exclamation came from just about everybody in the room.

"Well I want to make sure that the amount of money received is equal to the value of what was original offered, which in this case would be Ranma." Bree explained.

"Well he's an absolutely worthless son. Very disobedient, always skipping school and he doesn't have any skills at all." Genma said hastily.

"Hey!" Ranma protested. "I'm the best Martial Artist in the world!"

"Really?" Bree asked. Ranma paled.

"Er, no. I mean I'm about average really." He answered, backpedaling rapidly.

"Right, right." Bree replied dryly. "I'd say about one and a half million should cover it. Dollars that is."

"Dollars?" Genma asked, apparently trying to calculate how much that was in yen.

"Yeah. I spent my first eleven years in America. The dollar was the first currency I learned." Bree replied. "Anyway, you have until I leave Japan to pay me, otherwise I send the big men with big guns to come collect Ranma."

"When do you leave?" Kasumi's father, Soun, asked.

"Oh, whenever I decide to really. Since August I've been to France, Germany, Italy, parts of Africa, India, and China." Bree answered.

"You must not be staying in one place for very long then." Soun commented.

"No, not really. There just hasn't really been one place I find interesting long enough to keep my attention. I think Japan will be different though." And by that Bree meant that Japan teemed with the supernatural more than other, the wards were different than Europe's and it was far more concentrated than the wild expanses of Africa.

Bree was finally able to contact her Aunt. Well sort of, it was more like she contacted one of her Aunt's contacts. Anyway, Bree found out that Snape was the new Headmaster of Hogwarts and Slytherin's locket was found in Kreacher's possession. Apparently Sirius's younger brother had stolen it. One more Horcrux gone. One step closer to defeating Voldemort.

Bree stays at the Tendo's that night because she has nowhere else to go. The next morning the family is trying to come up with ways to earn money and Bree's sitting on the back porch eating pocky and wondering how long she had until everything went to hell.

She should have felt bad, she supposed, for putting the family in the room behind her under so much stress. Families are like jigsaw puzzles, take away one piece and it leaves the whole thing incomplete. They were all very afraid that she was going to remove a piece of their puzzle. And what about the piece that was removed? Barring death it would feel so very lonely and out of place, wouldn't it?

Bree frowned around the piece of pocky she was sucking chocolate off of. For a brief moment she wondered if she was puzzle piece and then decided that if she was a puzzle piece than she was the right eye from a picture of a Cheshire Cat, or maybe the sharpest fang from its grin. Either way she'd be one of those difficult ones that were kind of in the middle and not one of the easy ones along the edge. The edge of a jigsaw puzzle was always the easiest to build, especially the corners.

It occurred to her that it didn't really matter what kind of puzzle piece she was or wasn't because she wasn't a puzzle piece and she wondered why she started thinking about puzzles and her part in them since she was, after all, a cat. Contrary by nature, picky, and doing what she wanted whenever she wanted to.

Over the next few days Bree learned that Nerima was a basically the insane asylum of Tokyo. Ranma's fiancés, Shampoo and Ukyo, were helping him earn the money that would allow him to stay in Tokyo. Kodachi Kuno kept trying to buy the debt from Bree so that she would own Ranma but was constantly driven off by Shampoo, Ukyo, or Ranma's girl form. Ranma's rivals, Mousse and Ryoga, kept trying to drive Bree away so that Ranma would have to leave Tokyo but where thwarted by the fiancés and Ranma. Bree found the whole thing to be entertaining.

It was entertaining as long as you weren't on the wrong side of the property damage and had the right state of mind. But still, Bree was getting itchy, or at least that was how she described it. It really wasn't so much of an itch as it was an urge. There was more to Tokyo than Nermia and Bree needed to go see it.

"I'm going out." Bree announced to Kasumi who was the only in the house that day.

"Oh? Where are you going?" Kasumi inquired.

"I don't know yet, I guess I'll find out on the way." Bree replied.

"Well, have fun." Kasumi stated as Bree left.

Many miles later, Bree was in another part of Tokyo entirely. She just let her feet take her where they wanted to go and she found herself in front of a building that combined western and eastern styles.

"A customer! A customer!" two little girls chanted. One had short pink hair and the other had long blue hair in pigtails. They each grabbed one of Bree's hands and dragged her into the house. They led her to a woman with long layered hair.

"You were at Dumbledore's funeral!" Bree exclaimed. The woman looked amused.

"Yes I was." She answered. "I'm Yuko."

"You can call me Eris." Bree replied.

"I see." Yuko replied. "Watenuki!" she called into the house. "Bring us some tea and some snacks."

Someone in the house started grumbling. Yuko motioned for Bree to sit down. Soon a young man with black hair and glasses brought them what Yuko had demanded.

"So," Yuko began, "I suppose you're curious about this place."

"A little." Bree replied.

"This is a shop that grants wishes." Yuko explained. "Anything that you desire, as long as you're willing to pay the price."

"Be careful what you wish for. When dreams come true and wishes are granted there will always be a price to pay. For everything you desire, you have to pay an equal price in return." Bree stated. She locked eyes with Yuko. "I've heard you're voice before. Echoing inside my head."

"You're rather unique aren't you?" Yuko said. "Able to remember events you never witnessed and stories you've never heard. That makes thing easier since youalready have an understanding of how thing work."

She took a sip of her tea. "Now, what is your wish?" she asked.

"I want Voldemort to be defeated once and for all and for no harm to come to my friends or family in the process." Bree stated.

"That is a wish I cannot grant. Voldemort has steeped his soul in dark magic. Unraveling it would inevitably cause harm." Yuko explained. Bree frowned and thought for a moment.

"I want… I want my friends and family to be safe from Voldemort. I want Voldemort and those that work for him to be unable to hurt my friends and family." She said.

"That wish I can grant." Yuko replied.

"So what's the price?" Bree inquired grimly.

"You will have to take all hurt on yourself. You're safety will be compromised and I cannot guarantee your life. Your friends and family will be safe from Voldemort and his underlings, but you will be in more danger from them than you are now." Yuko answered.

"Okay." Bree replied. "I'm willing to pay that price." The air suddenly became thick with magic. It swirled around Bree for a moment, and when the air cleared Bree felt as if she had lost something. Like that feeling you get when something falls out of your pocket.

Bree left that shop in the same manner she had arrived at it, letting her feet decide the way. She wandered down a narrow side street. One minute she was walking on solid concrete and in the next she found her boots squelching in the mud.

She looked around and saw that she was in a forested area. The air seemed cleaner somehow and it looked as if it had just rained. Water was still dripping from the trees. The most interesting things about the forest were the strange glowing creatures that floated through the air.

"Hey there!" someone called out. Bree turned and saw a man with white hair covering one eye coming her way. As he got closer she saw that is visible eye was green and he was carrying some sort of box on his back.

"Can you tell me how far it is to the next town?" he asked once he was close enough that he didn't have to shout.

"No." Bree replied. "Truthfully I have no idea where I am."

"So you're lost." The man said.

Bree shook her head. "I was just walking on a dry street and now I'm it a damp forest. It happened in between steps I think. I was in one place, then I took a step and found myself in another place entirely." She explained.

"Did you try walking back the way you came?" the man asked.

"I got distracted by those glowing creatures in the air." Bree answered.

"They're call mushi. Not many people can see them." The man replied.

"I see." Bree said. "I should probably be going back now. Kasumi will be starting dinner soon." She turned and took a step back the way she came from and found herself back on the street. There was no sign of the forest or the man anywhere.

"Maybe from now on I should have a destination in mind instead of wandering aimlessly, before I get myself stuck in a place I can't come back from." Bree said to herself. "Of course then I might miss out on something fun." She tilted her head to the side. "Decisions, decisions."

She got back to the Tendo residence in time for dinner.

"Where did you go today? I saw your boots by the door and they were covered in mud, but it hasn't rained in weeks." Nabiki said.

"I'm not quite sure. One moment I was wandering through the city and the next I was in a forest." Bree replied.

"Sounds like you walked through one of the thin places in the world." Someone said. The source of the voice looked like a small mummy on a stick.

"Old hag! What are you doing here!" Ranma exclaimed. The old woman wacked him on the head with her staff.

"I came to see the girl that has everyone so worked up." She explained.

"Who are you?" Bree asked.

"I am Cologne, matriarch of the Chinese Amazons and Shampoo's great-grandmother." Cologne answered.

"You can call me Eris." Bree stated.

"That's not you're real name is it?" Cologne asked.

"No. But I'm not dumb enough to give out my real one, especially not with where I've been today. Before I ended up in the forest I was at rather strange shop."Bree answered. "It was run by a woman named Yuko."

"So that old witch is still in business?" Cologne questioned. Bree nodded.

"What price did you pay?" the old woman inquired.

"That's personal." Bree stated coldly.

"Would someone explain what the heck the two of you are talking about?" Ranma exclaimed.

"This girl here seems to have a talent for finding the supernatural." Cologne replied. "The shop she spoke of I know for granting wishes."

"Wishes?" Ranma repeated.

"For a price." Bree interjected before Ranma could start fantasizing about getting his curse removed. She had heard stories about all of his attempts to find a cure.

"Well how much is it?" Ranma asked.

"The price isn't monetary, it can be anything as long as it's equal to the value of the wish. For example, if you went to the shop asking for your curse to be lifted Yuko could askedfor your martial arts skills in exchange." Bree explained. Ranma went pale. "Then again she might not. The point is, in order to gain something you have to lose something." She continued.

"You are quite knowledgeable on the subject." Cologne commented. Bree shrugged.

"I know too much, sometimes that helps me." She replied.

The meal continued on smoothly and Bree went to bed soon afterwards.


	5. Blackmail and other Fun Things

**Sorry about the delay but there was the holidays, and I got two of my wisdom teeth removed and when the awesome pain killing drugs wore off I was miserable. So here you go.**

**X-overs in this chapter: Ranma 1/2, Ouran High School Host Club, Bleach, and Inuyasha.**

* * *

The next morning, Bree was lounging in the bath. There was a lot of shouting and arguing and Bree couldn't understand a word of it because she had taken off her translation key. There was a crash and Bree found herself sharing a bath with some debris and Ranma and Ryoga who had been beating the crap out of each other but they paused when they realized where they were.

They stared at Bree in horror. Bree stared blankly at them. She stood up and left the room. It took Ranma and Ryoga a moment to process the fact that she had been wearing a swim suit and then they went right back to pummeling each other.

Line line line

Bree spent the next two days trying to get in contact with some rich guy that owed her Aunt money. All she had to show for it were slammed doors and dropped calls.

"Is something wrong?" Kasumi asked after Bree slammed the phone down.

"Yes." Bree replied frowning.

"Anything I can do to help?" Kasumi asked.

"No, thanks anyway though." Bree answered. If she couldn't get to the man directly she could just go through his daughter.

* * *

Ouran Academy was over the top, pretentious, and a huge waste of money. It had a knockoff Big Ben and architecture similar to the nineteenth century architecture of Paris. It was pointless an extravengant. Naturally rich people wanted their children to go there and pretend to learn since they'd all be inheriting their parents fortunes anyway. And this was the school Bree had to infiltrate. Great.

She was wearing the schools uniform. Not the frilly yellow dress that the girls all wore. It was probably the ugliest garment Bree had ever seen in her life, and that included a rather horrific Christmas sweater that played jingle bells when you pressed the reindeer's nose. Poor Leo.

Anyway, Bree was wearing was wearing the far more sensible boy's uniform which consisted of a pale blue blazer over a white shirt and a pair of black trousers. She had dyed her brown, gelled to so it spiked out, put in green contacts, and tied down her "assets." She had silver cross hanging from one ear and a steel stud in the other. She had stuffed the translation key down her shirt so it wasn't visible and forced her voice to be deeper and more British.

She got a lot of looks from groups of giggling girls. She soon found her target. Brown hair, glasses, and a little self-conscious about her appearance. Bree had to fight a predatory grin off her face and settle for a more friendly expression.

"Excuse me, you're Fuka right?" Bree asked pleasantly. The girl flushed.

"Y-yes." She stuttered out. "C-can I help you."

"Why yes!" Bree replied. "You see, my Auntie and your father have done business together in the past and Auntie is trying to get in touch with him, but she's all in England and he's here in Japan and the time difference makes communicating a bit hard, so if you could just give your father this letter…"

Bree held out a plain white envelope to Fuka.

"Of c-course!" Fuka exclaimed, taking the letter.

"Perfect! Noe make sure you don't open that, I wouldn't want either of us to get in trouble." Bree replied. Not that she needed to, there was a charm that ensured that only the intended recipient would want to open the letter, but there was nothing wrong with reinforcing the idea.

"R-right." Fuka answered. Bree said goodbye and confidently walked off even though she had no idea where she was going. She got lost quite quickly.

"Maybe I should find someone and asked for directions." Bree mused aloud once she discovered the "point me" only showed her the direction of the exit and not an actual route to get there.

Bree opened a door and quickly regretted it when she found herself face with several boys in the school uniform who were apparently waiting for someone, otherwise there would be no reason for them to be posed near the door like that. There was a blue-eyed blond, a taller more serious version of Harry, a small childlike blond who probably had some sort of growth hormone imbalance, a set of twins, a tall brunet who looked kind of broody, and a smaller brunet who looked rather girly.

"Welcome!" they exclaimed as rose petals floated by on a non-existent breeze. As Bree tried to figure out if she had stepped though a thin place again the taller of the two blonds approached her.

"It's not often that we get a boy in here." He said.

"This was a mistake." Bree stated as she tried to back out of the room. The blond grabbed her.

"Now, now, don't be shy. We here at the Ouran High School Host Club feel that everyone should be able to embrace who they truly are! So what's your type? The Cool Type? The Twin Devils? The Loli-Shota Type? The Strong and Silent Type? The Natural Rookie? Or maybe," and here the boy moved uncomfortably close to Bree "The Prince Charming."

"I know you're probably trying to be seductive, but you just come off as creepy." Bree stated.

"Creepy!" the boy wailed in despair. He let go of Bree and went to mope in the corner. The twins snickered at him.

"Could someone sane please tell me how to get out of this school before I waste another hour trying to find my way out of here?" Bree asked.

The girly brunet volunteered. He introduced himself as Haruhi.

"So are you a new student here?" he asked Bree as they walked.

"Nah, it's just that wearing the uniform makes it so people don't ask questions about why I'm here." Bree replied.

"So why are you here?"Haruhi inquired.

"A father of one of the students owes my aunt money and he refuses to meet with me so I'm blackmailing him." Bree answered. Haruhi stared incredulously. Bree shrugged.

"I've been working for my Aunt so a debt collector." She explained before coughing a bit and allowing he voice to return to normal. "Man. Maintaining that voice is harder than I expected."

Haruhi blinked. "You're a girl?" he asked.

"Yes. I just didn't want to where that stupid yellow dress." Bree answered.

"… I'm a girl too." Haruhi stated after a moment.

"Huh… Well I did think you looked too girly to be a boy." Bree commented. "So why are you pretending to be a boy?" she asked.

"I've been working at the host club to pay back a debt for a broken vase." Haruhi explained.

"Host club? So that's what that… thing upstairs is?" Bree inquired. Haruhi nodded.

"So why can't you just pay back the debt instead of working it off?" Bree asked.

"I'm a scholarship student." Haruhi answered.

"Oh, that must have been difficult getting in here, pretty impressive." Bree commented. She rooted through one of her pockets and then handed some cash to Haruhi.

"Here, I know dealing with people who feel like their entitled to, well, everything can be pretty annoying so you should be able to treat yourself to something that helps you unwind." She said.

Haruhi stared.

"Is it too much or too little?" Bree asked. "I'm not really that good with foreign currency."

"It is kind of a lot." Haruhi replied.

"Oh." Bree took a little back. "There. Buy yourself something from one of those fancy cafes. Something with chocolate that always helps me relax."

"Are you sure about this?" Haruhi asked.

"Well, my school only had one self entitled bastard and I don't think you'd be able to use my method for dealing with him." Bree explained.

"How did you deal with him?"

"I made sure he was terrified of me. Oh look, we're here." They'd arrived at the front gate.

"Thanks for helping me out." Bree said.

* * *

Hours later Bree got a call from Fuka's father. He was ready to meet with her.

"I'm so glad you changed your mind." Bree practically purred.

"It's not like you gave me much of a choice." Fuka's father, Jiro muttered.

"Yes, well, you should have been more cooperative." Bree replied. "There was no need to be so evasive anyway, your company has more than enough money to pay back that starting loan my Aunt gave you."

"I remember dealing with your Aunt." Jiro replied. "I've heard that you take after her."

"So you were scared." Bree stated. Jiro didn't reply.

"You only need to be scared when you don't cooperate. As long as you do cooperate no harm will come to you or your family." Bree explained. "Now let's discuss your debt, would you like to pay all off at once or would you rather set up a payment plan?"

* * *

Once all of the details were hammered out, Bree put on her Wa Lolita outfit and headed back to Nerima. Halfway there she noticed the she was being followed. She hoped that she could keep her pursuers from attacking until she got to Nerima, the martial artists would easily be able to take them by surprise. Her luck didn't hold out and a cutting curse left a gash in her side.

She ran the rest of the way to Nerima, fighting for her life the entire way. Once Bree arrived to Nerima she was able to get help from Ranma who was in his female form and dressed as a maid for some reason.

After Ranma had beaten up the Death Eaters he/she took Bree to a clinic ran by a man name Dr. Tofu. The cut on her side needed to be stitched up and her sprained wrist was splinted.

"Who were those guys?" Ranma asked once they were back at the Tendo's.

"Why were you dressed like a maid?" Bree shot back. They glared at each other for a moment.

"Fine, don't tell me." Ranma muttered.

* * *

Bree's Wa Lolita outfit had been badly damaged. Kasumi offered to fix it and get the blood stains out. Bree didn't explain that since she had been recognized in it there was really no need for her to keep it anymore but refusing kindness from Kasumi was like kicking a puppy. Bree was looking into other styles, but until she found one she liked she was wearing more normal clothing. She still stood out since Japan was not a very ethnically diverse country and she was American.

Today Bree had decided to visit Karakura town since it was on the list of places that Magi could use spells out in the open under special circumstances. Nerima was on the list as well but didn't require special circumstances. Next to Nerima's listing there was also a note warning people to avoid the area for the preservation of their sanity.

It probably would have been better, safer, to have stayed in Nerima, but when Ranma wasn't there the Tendo household was boring and Bree needed something not boring. Besides, the hollow sightings in Karakura town sounded interesting. Hollows were a kind of violent spirit native to Japan. They no longer looked human, more like monsters in masks, and they were known to devour souls in order to get rid of the empty feeling they had inside. Bree wanted to see how well American methods worked on them.

It didn't take long for Bree to find one a hollow once she arrived. In fact, she found it almost immediately since it came after her with the intention of eating her. Bree took care of it with a shotgun blast of rock salt to the face. The next on got an iron rod through its mask. Once the mask was destroyed the things seemed to disappear for good.

It was a little disappointing really, in America salt and iron was only a temporary solution until the remains were found and burned. But hey, at least she didn't have to desecrate any graves, and she invented a new game. She had met a red haired boy named Jinta and a lacked haired girl named Ururu and taught them her new game that she had dubbed "smack the spirit." The game was pretty self-explanatory. You waited for a hollow to show up and then you took an iron rod and smacked it in the face.

"You know, you never told us your name." Jinta commented.

"No I did not." Bree replied. Jinta twitched.

"Well! Are you going to tell us or not!" he shouted.

"There's no need to be so loud, you could just ask." Bree replied.

"Okay then, what's your name?" Jinta asked.

"Oh that's easy!" Bree exclaimed brightly. "It's a secret." Jinta stared at her.

"You are so weird." He said.

"Yeah, well it's not like you have any room to…" Bree trailed off. The trio had been walking with no particular direction in mind and had ended up at the top of a steep hill. Bree was staring down to the bottom of it.

"Is something wrong miss?" Ururu asked.

"Keep walking and act as is everything is normal."Bree said tensely.

"What? Who are those guys?" Jinta asked when he figured out what Bree was looking at.

"Just some people who would kill me if they weren't ordered to take me alive." Bree replied while mentally berating herself. The Death Eaters were making their way up the hill.

"Alright scratch normal and just run." Bree ordered, twisted out of the way of a bone breaking hex headed for her knee. Bree responded by breaking open a fire hydrant with reducto and twisting the resulting geyser at her attackers. Then once her opponents were knocked down she froze then in place with glacius.

"We're not just going to leave you!" Jinta protested while this was happening.

"Then we'll run together!" Bree snapped, making sure both children were ahead of her as they fled down the street. She had only gotten three out of four Death Eaters with the hydrant.

As the kids turned a corner and well placed reducto hit its mark, the ground beneath Bree's feet. She was sent tumbling to the ground, getting a few cuts and scrapes in the process. The lone Death Eater approached as she tried to get up. The Crutatius curse hit and Bree screamed. Salvation came in the form of a lizard-like hollow. The fight had gotten its attention and it was looking for an easy meal.

The hollow lunged, distracting the Death Eater and freeing Bree from the curse. Bree struggled to her feet.

"Are you alright, miss?" Ururu asked.

"Just… give me a minute." Bree replied as she leaned against a fence. The trio watched as the Death Eater ran screaming from the hollow.

* * *

The kids took Bree to a shop ran by a man named Urahara. Bree called the Tendo's to let them know that she would be staying somewhere else that evening.

"So the wizarding world is at war huh?" he said after Bree explained things to him."Interesting. That explains all of the unusual activity that's been reported. And you're presence here is why hollow sightings have spiked. Most magi avoid Karakura since hollows are unusually attracted to them."

"I wanted to see if the methods I learned for dealing with spirits would work on hollows... They did." Bree replied.

"So you're an aspiring hunter then?" Urahara asked. Bree shrugged.

"Not really." She answered. "I just like knowing how to defend myself."

"I can understand that." Urahara responded. He looked at Bree for a long moment.

"Are you aware that you're shaking?" he asked.

"What!" Bree exclaimed, startled. She held up one of her hands. It was quivering and she couldn't force it to stop.

"It a residual effect from the curse you got hit with. I have something for that." Urahara stated. He went to a back room and returned minutes later with a small bottle. He handed it to Bree.

"Drink it, it will help." He said. Bree shakily raised the bottle to her lips and downed the contents it two quick gulps. The taste was horrible, but it was effective. Bree stopped shaking almost immediately.

Urahara chuckled when he saw the disgusted face Bree made. "I probably should have warned you about the flavor." He said.

"Do you have anymore?" Bree asked. Urahara looked surprised.

"Not quite the reaction I was expecting." He muttered.

"That's not the first time I've been hit with that curse, it probably won't be the last." Bree stated.

Urahara nodded. "From what you've told me it doesn't seem like they're going stop coming after you anytime soon, but still, if you get too much exposure to the curse of amount of that medicine will be able to help you." He warned.

"It's not like I want to get hit by it." Bree replied irritably. "I just want to be prepared." Urahara was about to respond when a shout came from the front room.

"Oi! Hat and clogs! Get out here!"

The source of the shout turned out to be a boy about Bree's age. He had orange hair, unusual for Japan. There was a black haired girl with him.

"Hello Ichigo, how nice of you to stop by." Urahara said.

"There's something wrong with this thing." The boy, Ichigo, said while holding up something that looked like a cellphone.

"Oh really?" Replied Urahara as he took the phone from Ichigo.

"It's been going off all day, but when we get to where it says there's a hollow there's nothing." Ichigo explained.

"That's interesting." Bree spoke up. "I've been killing hollows all day. It's pretty easy."

"Easy?" the black haired girl said in disbelief. "But, you're just an ordinary human with normal levels of spiritual pressure."

"Actually," Urahara interjected. "My friend here is what's known as a magi."

"Except in the U.K. and parts of Europe." Bree added.

"Right, but I don't usually deal with them so it doesn't matter." Urahara stated.

"Well I do, so it does." Bree replied.

"Could someone explain what a magi is?" Ichigo interrupted.

"Right, well a magi is someone who is naturally in tune with the energy of the planet and can channel it for their own ends. Hollows can't differentiate that from spiritual pressure and see them as sort of a walking buffet. My friend has been using western methods on the hollows that have been coming after her, they're rather effective." Urahara explained.

"So what's your friend's name?" the girl asked.

"I have no idea." Urahara replied. "She hasn't told me."

"If you need to call me something you can call me Eris. No offense, but I've become rather wary of giving out my name ever since I visited Yuko's shop." Bree stated.

"That's a good policy. You can lose a lot if you wander in to a place like Yuko's and you already seem to be missing something." Urahara replied.

"A price had to be paid, it's the way shops work." Bree responded.

"I heck of are you two even talking about!" Ichigo exclaimed.

"The sun and the moon and the sky in June." Bree replied cheerily.

"That doesn't make any sense!" Ichigo shouted.

"It's not supposed to!" Bree exclaimed happily.

* * *

The next day Bree decided that she wanted to see a shrine before she went back to the Tendo Dojo. Fortunately there was one on the way. Shrines had a lot of stairs. Or at least the one she was visiting did. Lots and lots of stairs the led up to the traditional red archway.

When Bree got to the top she heard a cry of "Demon" and found herself with a piece of paper stuck to her forehead. She pulled the paper off and frowned at the old man in traditional clothing who had apparently stuck the paper to her.

"Grandpa!" someone cried out in reprimand. A girl in a green and right school girl uniform ran over. Bree couldn't help thinking that her yellow backpack seemed to be packed for camping rather than a school day.

"She's a tourist, not a demon!" the girl shouted before turning to Bree. She said something that the translation key relayed to Bree as garbled noise. The girl had probably attempted an apology in Bree's native language and she probably wasn't very good at it.

"It's fine." The girl seemed surprised to "hear" Japanese. "I've had stranger days… So was that the shrines priest?"

"Yes. Grandpa has been in charge of the shrine since before I was born." The girl explained.

"He seems… interesting." Bree commented.

"He's been like that for as long as I can remember." The girl sighed. Bree nodded absently.

"You going camping soon?" Bree inquired. The girl looked surprised.

"Wh- what do you mean?" she stuttered.

"You're backpack." Bree replied.

"Oh!" the girl exclaimed. "Yes, I am. Going camping that is. My friends and I go, uh, every weekend. To the mountains! " She explained nervously. It was a rather obvious lie and Bree was quick to point that out.

"You're a terrible liar. Your expression, the tone of your voice, offering extra details. You should really work on that." She commented.

The girl laughed nervously as Bree walked toward a rather large and ancient looking tree.

"You're not going to ask me more?" The girl asked. Bree gave her a flat look.

"Do you want me to?" she asked.

"Well-no." the girl replied.

"Then why would I? You have secrets, I have mine." Bree said. There were a few minutes of silence.

"Japan is a lot more than I thought it would be." Bree commented.

"Excuse me?"

"I came here because I thought it would be interesting. I was right. It's really more interesting than I thought it would be. Tokyo has such a dense population and yet there are so many things that people don't see, or they ignore it, or they say their minds were playing tricks on them, or maybe thay don't see it because they can't see it."

The girl looked puzzled. Bree smiled.

"Sorry. I was rambling." She apologized. "Japan is just so unique! Just the other day I wander through a thin place without meaning to."

"What's a thin place?" the girl asked curiously.

"It's a place where the fabric of reality is thin enough for things to pass through one world into another. You could be on a city street one moment and in a forest the next." Bree answered. The girl's next question surprised her.

"Could something pass through to a different time?" Bree tilted her head and thought.

"Maybe." She answered after a minute or two. "The nature of time itself isn't something I fully understand and what I do know is hard to believe. It's like when you're little and they tell you the earth is round and you don't quite believe it because from your perspective its flat since you can't see it from above. Time is like that. We see it as linear, one event after another, in the right order, but it's not like that it all, it's… it's constantly in flux. Events are constantly being changed by time travelers and cracks in the universe and the thinness of reality but we never see it that way.

The girl looked confused. Bree laughed happily.

"You probably think I'm crazy." She stated.

"No. I think that there are a lot of unusual things that people don't know much about." The girl replied.

Bree nodded. "Sometimes I feel like I'm a magnet for unusual things. Other times I just kind of stumble into it." She said.

"I know the feeling." The girl mumbled.

"Kagome!" someone, a male, shouted. "You're late come on!"

The girl, Kagome, sighed tiredly.

"I'd better get going." She said.

"Well it was nice talking to you." Bree replied.

"Kagome!" the voice shouted again.

"I'm coming! Just hold on!" Kagome shouted back as she ran off.


	6. Sail Away, Sail Away, Sail Away

**X-over: Ranma 1/2, Yu yu Hakuso, and Inuyasha.**

* * *

Bree was being followed by a sickly purple blob, a "garbage pile" so to speak. It was an amalgamation of other spirits and every negative human emotion and it stank, though Bree was the only one able to see or smell. The garbage pile sought out to absorb other spirits and right now it had its sights set on devouring Bree. She couldn't really do anything about it until she found someplace without people.

Even in Nerima seeing things that weren't there was considered strange.

Bree got a little distracted by someone complaining rather loudly.

"Just look for anything out of the ordinary" she says! This whole place is out of the ordinary! And what was with that pig fighting with that girl!" a boy ranted to his friends.

Bree chuckled to herself. Nerima, if you can't stand the insanity, run for your life. But why was that kid in Nerima anyway? He said he was looking for something… Bree took a closer look at the boy and his friends.

The boy had slicked back black hair and was wearing a green school uniform. There were three others boys with them. The tallest of them was also the ugliest and was wearing a blue uniform. The shortest had gravity defying hair and was dressed in black. The last one had red hair and green eyes and was dressed in a red school uniform.

Bree suddenly noticed that the garbage pile was catching up with her. Her ran ahead of it and led it to a secluded park. She took out one of the iron bars she'd been using in her game of "smack the spirit" and hit the blob with impeccable aim. It didn't disappear like a hollow would, instead it spilt in two.

"That's right, it's made up of more than one spirit, and not all of them are human." Bree muttered to herself as the blob pieced itself back together. It attacked, sending multiple tentacles forward. Bree dodged most of them but was grabbed by others that pulled her forward, making her lose her balence. There was a sudden flash of movement and the tentacles were on the ground, separated from the main body. Bree looked up and found the short guy in black with a sword drawn. The tentacles started moving back toward the main body.

"Are you alright?" It was the redhead.

"I've had worse." Bree replied as he helped her up. The other two members of the group were there as well. The ugly one had some sort of energy sword that.

"Hey Kurama, any idea what this thing is?" the boy in green asked.

"It appears to be made of many spirits merged together." The redhead, Kurama, answered.

"It's a garbage pile." Bree supplied.

"A what?" the boy in green asked. Bree shrugged.

"It's made of trash and it stinks." She answered. The blob attacked again and again its tentacles were cut off.

"Why's it after you?" the boy in green asked.

"It wants to make a meal of me." Bree replied.

"Well it's not going to get that chance." The boy stated. The fight was over quickly. They overcame the garbage pile's regenerative abilities when the boy in green blasted it with some sort of energy attack.

"Thanks for the help." Bree said when it was all over.

"No. Problem. Name's Yusuke. This here is Kuwabara" The ugly guy. "Hiei" The short guy. "and Kurama." The redhead. "We're here investigating some unusual disturbances." Yusuke explained.

"This is Nerima. It's nothing but unusual disturbances." Bree replied.

"Yeah, I noticed that." Yusuke responded. "But these have been happening in more normal places like Karakura, we just traced it back to here." Bree frowned.

"What are the others places?" she asked. Yusuke listed them. Bree's eyes widened in realization. Those were all places she'd been recently.

"You know something?" Yusuke pressed when he saw the look on Bree's face.

"Yeah I" she was cut off by a sudden commotion. An announcement for a martial arts tournament with a large cash prize, from what Bree had overheard when she was at the Tendo's it was enough to cover the debt. She could already pick out familiar faces signing up.

"Tell you what, you win the tournament and I'll tell you what I know." Bree said.

"What! There's no way I'm wasting my time on that!" Yusuke shouted. Bree shrugged.

"Well, I can understand if you're scared." She stated.

"Scared!" Yuuske yelled. Bree nodded.

"It looks like Ranma's signing up, no one's ever between him in a fight." She explained. "You'd lost for sure if you fought him."

"No way!" Yuuske shouted before stomping over and signing up. Bree grinned.

"Why did you do that?" Kurama asked. "It was obvious that you were going to tell us everything before the tournament was announced."

"It'll make Ranma's life more difficult, he'll probably win the tournament, but I want him to work for it." Bree answered.

"You shouldn't underestimate him, even if he is an idiot." Hiei told her.

"Trust me I'm not." Bree replied. "But Ranma's been practicing martial arts for almost his entire life. He's very strong and very fast." And those were the very reasons she wanted him to lose.

"Anyway," Bree continued. "If you really want me to tell you what's been going on the tournament's your best shot. I'm leaving the country as soon as iit's over. I've lingered here long enough." And with that Bree walked off.

Line line line

The Tendo's didn't take very well to the news that Bree was leaving once the tournament was over. And Bree meant it quite literally, the second a winner was declared she was out of there.

"Why?" Akane asked.

"I've been tied down to one place for too long." Bree explained. "I need to get moving."

"This is about the people who attacked you, isn't it?" Ranma asked.

Bree shrugged. She had started paying attention to the phases of the moon since her time in Africa and there was one coming up. The Death Eaters wouldn't necessarily let the werewolves kill her, but it was still dangerous, especially somewhere residential and packed with people.

The tournament would take place over three days. The first day was mostly about weeding out the weak and Bree didn't go to watch because it was rather boring. Instead, she went to Tokyo's magical shopping district.

Spirits started following her on the way there. Bree moved quickly. She darted into an alley between two shops and the spirits bounced off and unseen barrier. The magical district of Tokyo was like a different world. The buildings were built in traditional Japanese style. Some of the people were dressed traditionally, others wore more modern styles, and some wore a mix of the two. Shops sold everything imaginable. Books, creatures Bree had never seen before, rare potions ingredients like mermaids' claws, strange devices, and muggle items.

Bree regretted no coming sooner but she had worried that being in a magical area would make her easier to track. She found a library, there was some research she wanted to do. The library was bigger on the inside with massive selves that towered over her. They were full of books and scrolls. With some assistance from the librarian Bree was able to find what she was looking for, information about how the Japanese dealt with spirits.

Apparently there was a rather large difference between Japanese wards and European ones. The European ward weakened spirits while the Japanese ones repelled them completely, but they were only over magical areas. Anyone who ventured out of those areas had to be prepared to protect themselves from various spirits. The easiest way to do this was with ofuda, paper tags with the power to cleanse a spirit. Bree recalled the old priest from the previous day that had attacked her with one.

After doing a bit of shopping Bree wandered around for a bit. She remembered the potential danger wandering and headed to a park in Nerima. She contemplated practicing bush magic there. It was fairly green, there were no warded building nearby and if something happened there were a bunch of martial artists a few blocks away. She decided to try it.

She allowed herself to drift into a meditative state. It was a little strange, pushing the natural engery in her body out as if it were another limb. The felt the grass and the tree she was under. She felt the braches and all of the leaves. She tried to get a branch to move but only succeeded in wiggling a leaf or two. She move down into the roots, and then into the dirt and the creatures living there. As she pushed deeper she began to feel as if she was energy. She moved down into the earth where she could feel a large amount of energy flowing.

"Don't touch that!" Bree started a bit and pulled away from the energy flow. She searched for the source of the voice. She felt a presence. It wasn't there with her exactly, it was near the energy flow, like it was observing it. It felt familiar somehow.

"So I guess you made it back safely." It said. Bree's energy flared excitedly. It was the man from when she wandered through one of the thin places! The one who told her about mushi!

"I guess you can't talk like this, huh?" the man stated. "To tell you the truth I barely recognized you. You're an odd one." Bree poked at him.

"I supposed you're curious about the river." The man said. "It's called Koumyaku, or the River of Light. It's made up of tiny mushi called Kouki. It emits pure life energy so mushi tend to gather were if flows. Usually the only way to see it is to close your second eyelid, though with the method you're using you're probably not really seeing it. That's probably a good thing. Stare at its glow for too long and you'll lose your eyes, but I still wouldn't get too close to it if I were you."

Bree lingered for a little bit more. The river made her feel so energetic.

"_Hey_"

Who said that?

"Wake up."

They sounded so far away.

"Wake up!" Bree pulled back. She opened her eyes. The first thing she noticed was that the sky was darkening; the second was that Hiei was glaring down at her. She sat up.

"You're spirit energy was behave strangely." He said in a tone that demanded answers.

"That's to be expected, considering what I was doing." Bree replied as she stood up and brushed grass and dirt off her clothing. "And that information falls under the parameters I set earlier." She added when Hiei wouldn't stop staring at her.

"One of us has to win the tournament." Hiei concluded.

"You signed up too?" Bree replied, looking amused.

"I didn't have a choice." Hiei replied.

"Yusuke signed you up." Bree chuckled.

"It was pathetically easy. Even Kuwabara didn't have any trouble." Hiei stated.

"That's why I didn't go today. It was all about weeding out the weak, and speaking of weak you just let me know who the weakest member of your group is. If I were your enemy I go for him first." Bree replied smirking even as Hiei prepared to draw his sword.

"But I'm not, so you have no reason to worry." She continued. Hiei relaxed somewhat, but didn't take his hand off his sword.

"I'm surprised you didn't enter the tournament yourself." He said.

"Why? I have absolutely no reason to enter a tournament I can't win." Bree said. "I'd be able to beat the weakest of them, but there are heavy hitters like Ranma and Ryoga entered in that thing and they could kill me if they wanted to, I mean, if it wasn't against their code."

"So you admit to being weak." Hiei stated.

"I admit to knowing how to pick my battles." Bree answered. "Anyway, I'll be there tomorrow, the fights are going to get more interesting." And with that, she walked off.

* * *

Bree was right, the fights the next day were more interesting. Kuwabara did pretty well against Ryoga, but Ryoga won when he used his "breaking point" technique to collapse the floor beneath Kuwabara.

The fight between hidden weapon specialist Mousse and sword wielding Hiei was interesting in its own way. Hiei was too fast for Mousse to land a hit and the massive quantity of weapons he had to avoid or block kept Hiei too busy to counterattack. Bree wasn't sure how Mouse was able to keep so many weapons hidden under his clothes and still be able to move without stabbing himself. Eventually Mousse ran out of things to throw and Hiei knocked him out.

Ranma managed to beat Kurama even though he was affected by some sort of paralytic and was weirded out by Kurama's affinity for roses. Apparently it reminded him of Kodachi.

Yusuke had fought Ukyo, and had nearly lost when he realized that Ukyo was, in fact, a girl. Bree didn't think the Ukyo was really trying to hide her gender with the clothes she showed up in, it just seemed like they were easier to fight in. Anyway, Yusuke did manage to win but he wasn't sure how he felt about. There were more fights of course, but those were the only ones that mattered Bree.

* * *

Bree had been correct in her assessment that she had lingered in Japan for too long. She should have changed where she was staying a few times at least, but the free room and board, even if it was supplied somewhat unwillingly, had been too tempting to pass up. Her trips to other parts of the city were meant to lead her pursuers away from Nerima, but she always ended up returning to the Tendo's and the Death Eaters figured out that her "base" was located somewhere in that part of Tokyo at that was where they focused their search.

Bree hid in an alley in cat form, between two trashcans as it started to rain. By the time she made it back to the Tendo's she was soaking wet.

"Well look what the cat dragged in." Nabiki commented sardonically. Bree began laughing hysterically since she had just spent the last four hours as a cat.

* * *

The fights on the third down were at their most intense, though Bree didn't really pay attention to them because there were Death Eaters in the crowd. She tried to lose them in the crowd but every time she worked her way to edge of the crowd there was a Death Eater there. The Death Eaters couldn't nab her if they couldn't get to her. Bree wasn't willing to start a fight in the crowd and the Death Eaters didn't want to attract the attention of the martial artists because of how it had worked out for them the last time.

Eventually, it was time for the last fight, once it was over the crowd would disperse and the fighters would leave. The last fight was between Yusuke and Ranma, both had a smug self-assured air around them.

The fight began. It started off as a lot of fast paced movement too quick for the untrained eye and then it moved into stronger attacks the Bree didn't catch the names of. A Death Eater had tried to get closer to her, hoping to use the fight as a distraction. It didn't work; Bree spotted him and moved away. By the time she looked up Yusuke had somehow managed to lose his shirt.

Eventually the fight came to its climax. Two attacks hit each other and exploded, kicking up dust and smoke and destroying the ring.

The dust started to clear and only one figure was left standing, albeit shakily. It was Yusuke. He was awarded the prize. As Bree moved forward through the now thinning crowd Yusuke and his friends started talking to Ranma and the Tendo's. By the time she got to them Ranma was grinning.

"Why are you so happy?" Bree asked, he had lost and therefore didn't have the money to pay her off.

"Uremeshi and I got to talking and he's going to give me the prize money so now I don't have to leave with you." Ranma explained.

Bree sighed. She shouldn't have offered that deal. They needed manpower more than they needed money.

"I won the tournament." Yusuke said, grinning.

"Well, a deal's a deal." Bree replied shrugging. "The answer is; me." Yusuke looked confused.

"I'm the source of the disturbances." She elaborated.

"What disturbances?" Ranma asked.

"You don't get to speak right now, Ranma, because I'm talking." Bree snapped. "Anyway, the spirits here seem to be attracted to the energy I'm giving off and that makes them want to snack on me, I didn't really notice until they attacked me."

"How could you not notice something like that?" Yusuke asked incredulously.

"I've never been to Japan before this trip. Spirits here are different than the ones in America in Europe. There are creatures here that affect spirits that are not present in others places, where I'm from spirits don't try to devour people, maybe terrorize or kill, but they don't eat you. So how could I notice something I've never experienced before? Before coming here I never thought I would have to worry about something trying to other than a demon trying to take my soul." Bree explained. She noticed that the crowd was mostly gone the Death Eaters were too wary to approach.

"You haven't explained what you were doing yesterday." Hiei stated.

"Meditating." Bree replied.

"That doesn't explain the fluctuations of your spirit energy." Hiei said. Bree was a little annoyed. The little bastard couldn't just come out and ask a question, could he? Bree didn't really feel like getting into all of the technicalities of bush magic right then and there, especially since…

"Sorry folks, looks like our time together is up." Bree said with false cheer. "I'll send someone to collect the money later, right now I've got to run. And I mean that literally. See ya!" She gave them a quick two fingered salute and moved out of the way as a stunning charm came at her. It hit Ranma's father, Genma, instead, knocking him out.

And Bree ran. She used a feather-light charm on herself to make fleeing easier. It also made jumping easier and she was able to jump over a wall and land lightly on her feet while the Death Eaters were forced to go around the wall, or through it with a reducto which was what they did.

Bree was surprised to find Hiei running along next to her. She was going all out and it didn't look like he was anywhere close to breaking a sweat. She was kind of annoyed by that.

"Who are they?" Hiei demanded. Finally, a question.

"Minions." Bree answered quickly. "Their boss wants me taken alive."

"Why?" Hiei questioned.

"Information." Bree answered. She wasn't really lying, she just wasn't saying what the information was. Frankly, the less people that knew about what was in her head, the better. A bludgeoning hex sailed past them and hit a building.

"Alive doesn't necessarily mean in one piece." Bree commented. She heard the sounds of fighting behind her but she didn't stop running to look even as Hiei dropped back to join in.

Eventually she did have to stop running, but that didn't mean that she stopped moving. Subway, bus, subway, cab, and then she was at the docks were she met up with one of Leo's contacts. She soon found herself on a boat to Australia. She hadn't even been able to thank the people that had helped her. She wondered how many more days she would have that ended that way. The full moon passed while she was on the ship and there was no incident.

* * *

Australia was hot and arid and full of things where the policy of "look, don't touch" could keep you alive and Bree was enamored by it.

Bree headed into the outback to find Marron, the ghost that had first taught her bush magic. She told him about her experience with Hogwarts and the "River of Light." Marron reprimanded her saying that go in to deeply without someone there to wake or she could lose herself forever.

Bree spent the night by the river. The next morning she was treated to the sight of large flocks of colorful birds. She watched them for a while before moving on. She camped in the outback for a few days and no longer than that because she didn't really want a repeat of Africa. She naturally gravitated toward America, one specific city in America in fact, San Diego California.

San Diego was, in Bree's opinion, the best city in the world, not that she was biased or home sick or anything. The first thing she did was go to her favorite beach, walk down to the tide pool, and poke some sea anemones with childish glee. There was sand, salt, and good looking surfers. She was home.

* * *

Omake: Bree's exit from Japan.

Everyone who had fought against Bree's pursuers had fully expected the girl they knew as "Eris" to stick around and explain what was going on. Then they'd go after the villain, defeat him, "Eris" would be suitably grateful and perhaps a bit teary, and everyone would live happily ever after until the next villain popped up. That was how these works, except that's not what happened.

Eris had seemingly vanished from Japan and all they had to go on is what Eris had told Hiei and whatever information they could get out of the captured evil minions, which wasn't much since there was some unknown force rendered the minions unable to talk. It was incredibly frustrating.

* * *

Omake 2 for Guest reviewer: Bree and Fluffy-sama, I mean Sesshomaru

So falling down a well probably wasn't the most intelligent thing she had ever done, I fact it probably made the list of things never to be repeated. The well turned out to be some kind of portal to another world/universe/timeline/time period/ dimension. Bree wasn't willing to rule anything out. Bree decided to explore the place a bit before trying to return home.

It should be noted that she set off in a direction leading away from the nearby village, but it's not like she knew that. All she really found was a whole lot of forest. She was about to turn back went she heard the sound of a child screaming. She ran towards the scream and found a little girl being attacked by a monster that was talking about how good she would taste. Naturally, Bree killed the monster.

"What are you doing out here?" she asked the sniffling girl.

"Lord Sesshomaru told me to wait for him here." She answered.

"By yourself?" Bree pressed. The girl shook her head.

"He told Jaken to watch over me but Jaken left not long after Lord Sesshomaru did." She explained.

Bree sighed. "My names Bree, what's yours?" she asked.

"Rin." The girl answered.

"Okay then Rin, how about I stay with you until Sesshomaru gets back?" Bree suggested. Rin happily agreed. They spent a few hours picking flowers and making daisy chains. Eventually Rin grew tired and fell asleep with her head resting on Bree's lap. Late in the evening, someone finally showed up.

It was a tall regal looking male humanoid. And Bree said humanoid, not human because of the man's pointed ears, facial markings, and long silver hair.

Rin stirred.

"Lord Sesshomaru, you're back!" she exclaimed somewhat sleepily when she caught sight of the male.

"Where's Jaken?" he asked.

"He left." Rin replied.

"So was it this girl that killed the demon then?" Sesshomaru asked.

"Yes! Bree save me, and then she played with me until I got tried and then she let me use her lap as a pillow and then you came." Rin babbled.

Sesshomaru stared at Bree, examining her closely.

"I've never seen a human like you before." He finally said.

"I'm just passing through, I would have gone home by now if I hadn't discovered Rin alone out here. You should find someone more trustworthy than this Jaken fellow to watch her if you really have to leave her behind. She might not always be lucky enough to have someone like me pass by." Bree replied.

"Anyway I've got to get going." She said before she walked off. Jaken got a severe reprimand after that and Sesshomaru started leaving Rin with Kagome, much to his half-brother's chagrin.

* * *

**I've noticed that most of the series I'm into take place in either America or Japan, plus I'm a lot more familiar with America anyway, so a lot of the story will probably be taking place in those countries. Just because Bree's left Japan for now doesn't mean she won't double back later.**


	7. Here Be Dragons

**I don't know what happened. I was on TvTropes and I lodt so much time... Anyway, here's the next chapter.**

**X-overs: Jackie Chan Adventures. I really loved that show when I was younger.**

* * *

Bree loved the San Diego Zoo, she loved the animals and had found memories of going to see them with her family. The first things you saw when you walked into the zoo were the flamingos, even with the renovations they had made over the years that hadn't changed.

Bree was having fun. She was actually enjoying herself. That really should have been her first clue that everything was about to go to sideways. She found herself being stalked by Death Eaters. Unfortunately for the Death Eaters they had caught up to in a zoo and well…

The thing is keeping wild animals contained in a zoo nowadays mostly hinges on the fact that the animal has no real desire to leave. All of their needs were met and the keepers made sure they didn't get bored.

Of course there are a few other factors. The giraffes at the San Diego Zoo could very easily walk right out of the exhibit. The reason they don't is because of a rather simple concrete wall. Now the giraffes could very easily step over the wall, but the wall is curved inn such a way that they can't see where they would be stepping if they did. They can't be sure if where they'd be stepping is safe, so they don't try to get past the wall. They have no reason to take that risk, well, at least not until a certain blonde magi arrived.

After the incident the zoo was closed for a few days while an investigation was conducted. The investigators managed to piece together a series of events that went like this; Two men attacked a young woman; The male giraffe walked out of the enclosure and then kicked the men away from the girl; People fled; The giraffe returned to the exhibit.

What the news reported was that after the young woman was attacked the giraffe, thinking that it was taking a risk, stepped out of its exhibit to defend her and returned once the threat was neutralized.

The truth was that the Death Eater made a grab for Bree just as she got the giraffe under her control. After the Death Eaters were unable to continue their assault Bree, having finished borrowing the animal, had the giraffe return to its enclosure.

* * *

Bree was laughing in her motel room. The look of that Death Eaters face when the giraffe kicked him had been priceless. She couldn't stop laughing. The phone rang. Wes had finally called back they had talked that morning about Bree's situation.

"I've talked to some other hunters. Told them about the dark magi and to expect bodies. They'll make sure word gets out." Wes stated.

"Did you tell them about me?" Bree asked. "I don't want to end up looking down the barrel of a shotgun."

"Don't worry, I warned 'em… You might want to avoid making the news from now on though." Wes replied.

Bree grinned. "Hey, it wasn't me, it was the giraffe." She protested. Wes sighed.

"Just try not to attract attention alright? You wouldn't want any uniformed hunters coming after you." He said.

"Yeah, yeah. It'd be easier if you could just tell every hunter." Bree responded.

"I'm spreading the word best as I can. I haven't been able to contact John yet." Wes stated.

"John?" Bree questioned.

"Winchester, you remember, he stopped by the day I found out you were a magi." Wes explained.

"The guy with the vintage car, right?" Bree asked.

"Right. He went off grid awhile ago." Wes replied. "I'm going to call Bobby Singer next, he'll be able to spread the word and he might know where John is."

"I'll talk to you later then." Bree said.

"Stay out of trouble 'til then." Wes said.

Bree laughed. "I'll try Wes. I'll try." She said.

* * *

Bree got a visitor that night, one of Lisa's contacts. Lisa had noticed that she had developed an immunity to Voldemort's followers, so had, Vince, Percy, who wasn't working at the ministry anymore, and some of the men that worked for Lisa. In retrospect she probably should have told Lisa about the wish she had made in Japan before she told Wes but Lisa was scarier than Wes.

Then Bree was told that the revelation that pretty much anyone that Bree cared about (because that was the only connection they could find and re, who else could do something so impossible) was immune to Death Eaters had led to Alice wanting to take a more active role in things. That had led to fight which led to Lisa referring to Alice as Bree which had led to Alice running away. Bree, after telling the contact that she had no idea where Alice was, she assured him that she would keep an eye out for her wayward cousin. The contact left and Bree was left alone with her thoughts.

Alice was just as resourceful and manipulative as she was. But she didn't have the training and she couldn't use any of Lisa's contacts without her knowing. Bree knew that Alice would be safe from the Death Eaters but there was a long list of other dangers out there. But Bree had her own problems, especially now that she had to pay, was paying, the price for the wish she had made in Yuko's shop. She had to focus on keeping herself alive before she could do anything for Alice.

* * *

"John Winchester is dead." Bree blinked slowly. It was early in the morning and she had just been woken by the incessant ringing of the phone.

"Could you repeat that?" she asked.

"I talked to Bobby. John Winchester is dead. He made a deal with a demon so he could save his oldest son." Wes explained.

"Damn, that's… that's just… Damn." Bree was at a loss for words.

Wes sighed. "I know kid. I know." He said.

"What are you going to do?" Bree asked.

"I've got some people working on finding his sons, and others on making a list of relatives that have the room to host you if you come through their neck of the woods." Wes answered.

Bree frowned. "Is that safe? And did you tell them about…" she trailed off.

"That wish you told me about was some real powerful mojo, you're friends and family can't be hurt by them. As for your other question, I only told the ones that would believe me, and the others, well, we're family. If they knew and believed then they'd want to protect you. We all still remember you being the baby of the family after all." Wes said.

Bree huffed.

"Where are you headed to next?" Wes asked.

"I don't know. I've made a list of cities where you can use magic somewhat openly. I guess I'll cross-reference that with the list of people that owe Lisa something and list of relatives you come up with." Bree answered.

"Alright then. You stay out of trouble now." Wes told her.

"I will." She replied.

* * *

Bree took an Amtrak train up north to San Francisco. She had her big list of people who owe Lisa and/or her organization something and had found the name of an enterprising criminal group that had yet to pay back a… well you could call it a start-up loan, or maybe an investment, either way the group stilled owed, plus interest.

Bree had decided to wear a leather jacket over a red tank top along with some dark jeans and a pair of black leather boots, with sensible heels of course. Her hair was dyed red and she had put in green contacts.

She found her destination easily enough and she knocked on the door. She heard male voices arguing. "You get it." "I'm not getting it, make Ratso get it." "I just got comfortable." "Will somebody just answer the door!"

A short Asian man wearing yellow-orange sunglasses opened the door.

"You're not the pizza guy." He said.

"How perceptive of you." Bree replied dryly. "Is Valmont here?"

"Who's asking?" the man replied.

"I'm here representing the interests of Lisa Smith." Bree replied.

"Don't just stand there Chow! Let her in!" a voice from inside ordered. Chow was shoved out of the way by the source of the voice, a blond man in a green suit.

"I'm terribly sorry, I'm afraid my employees have yet to learn any manners." He said, letting Bree in.

"Who's Lisa?" a dark haired man in a black suit asked.

"Someone that Valmont owes a lot of money to." Bree replied. Valmont cringed slightly.

"How do we know you were really sent by this Lisa chick?" a red haired man in a white disco suit asked. Bree frowned and pulled a small notebook out of her pocket.

"Finn. You sang disco at weddings before joining the Dark Hand. Your nephew, Frank, looks up to you and has no idea you're criminal. You're also a 70's fanatic." She read.

"That's a little creepy." Chow said. Bree directed her attention towards him.

"Chow. Three time winner of employee of the month at the Sun-Shack before joining the Dark Hand. Your nephew, Charlie, looks up to but doesn't know about your crimes." She read. She turned to the dark haired man.

"Ratso. Studied theoretical physics before joining the Dark Hand. You also have a nephew, Rocko, who knows nothing about your occupation." Every word Bree spoke made the men in the room increasingly uncomfortable, except for a one. A stoic Asian man in the corner that looked to be the size of a small elephant had not reacted at all. Bree wanted to change that.

"Tohru. Born in Tokyo, Japan. Joined the enforcers sometime after moving to America. You love your mother even though she can be overbearing at times. She dosen't know about your criminal activities, but I suppose it's rather easy to hide them when you live an ocean away since she's still in Japan. I think I may have passed through her neighborhood when I was over there." When she was done Tohru looked unnerved.

"Don't threaten my mommy." He rumbled.

"Who said anything about a threat? I was just making conversation."Bree replied. "Although, if you don't cooperate… well in that case it would actually be easier to get at your co-workers nephews."

"Hey, you leave them out of this!" Finn protested.

"I'll do whatever is necessary to make a profit." Bree snapped back. She turned to address Valmont.

"We've had eyes on the Dark Hand for a while. There's been a lot of activity but you have yet to pay back any of your debt."she stated.

"I thought the boss was loaded." Said Ratso.

"He was, but he spent his inheritance rather frivolously on things like helicopters and planes and when he ran out of money he asked a childhood friend for help." Bree explained. "He promised to pay it back and I'm here to collect."

"It been years, I thought she had forgotten about it." Valmont said.

"No, she was just letting the interest collect, now it's time to cash in." Bree replied.

"Er- well. I don't have the money right now, but I will just as soon as we complete our current business venture." Valmont responded.

"What is your current business venture?" Bree inquired. Valmont looked uncomfortable.

"If you don't tell me I'll have to do illegal things to you." She said. Valmont gave in and showed her to a back room were a statue of a serpentine dragon coiled up like a snake was hanging on the wall.

"A dragon statue… How much is it worth?" Bree asked.

"Foolish mortal!" a voice from the statue hissed. "I am no mere statue! I am the mighty dragon Shendu!"

"A talking egomaniacal dragon statue… How much is it worth?" Bree questioned. Valmont pressed a hand to his head.

"The plan isn't to sell Shendu. It's to gather the twelve talismans and restore him to his former glory after which he will reward us with treasure." Valmont explained. Bree stared at him.

"That's you're plan? Trust an evil dragon to keep his word instead just incinerating you once you're no longer of use to him? If I was going to doom myself for treasure I'd call up a crossroads demon, I'd go to hell, but at least they keep their word." She growled.

"Crossroads demon?" Valmont said curiously.

"Think of them like genies, only they only grant one wish and after ten years they send hellhouds after you to drag you soul to hell, of course that's after they're done mangling you're body. It's not a pretty picture." Bree explained. "Anyway, the most profitable thing you could right now with… Shendu would be to sell him to for a few million. Occult collectors go crazy over stuff like this."

"Fools! What I have to offer is more valuable than any petty riches some pathetic human could offer!" Shendu snarled. Bree sighed.

"You have four days to come up with ten grand. That'll cover most of the interest." She said.

"But that's not nearly enough time!" Valmont protested.

"You're criminal, get creative, rob a bank, blackmail a senator, just get the money. If you don't you'll be considered a lost cause and everything you own, including Shendu, will be seized and sold for profit. Then your employees will be shipped to England to be used and cannon fodder and then you'll be tied to a cactus in the desert without so much as a stich of clothing to set an example to anyone else that doesn't pay up." Bree replied.

"Also, I'll be staying with you for those three days to make sure you stay on track. Try anything funny and big men with big guns will come over for a visit. Now I'm going to raid your fridge. Get plotting." And with that, Bree walked off in search of food.

* * *

The next day Bree watched from across the street as the Dark Hand tried, and failed, to rob a bank. They were thwarted by an Asian man they called "Chan." The man had just been there to make a transaction when the Dark Hand arrived. That was some luck, though Bree wasn't sure whose.

When the Dark Hand got back to their hideout Bree was there, watching the local news. The Dark Hand's failed robbery was the top story.

"Tick tock, tick tock." Bree sing-songed, moving her fingers like a metronome.

"Hey, we got some cash!" Chow protested. He dropped some money onto the coffee table.

"Two hundred dollars. Why at this rate you'll have the money in no time." Bree said sarcastically.

"It would have gone better if you would allow us to obtain one of the talismans so that we could use its power." Valmont replied. Bree gave him a blank look.

"I never said you couldn't. I just said I wanted the money in four days, well, three and a half now. I really don't care how you get it." She told him. He groaned and buried his face in his hands.

* * *

On the morning of the second day Bree had to deal with Shendu's Shadowkhan. They looked like stereotypical ninja except that they had blue skin. Shendu had sent them to kill Bree since she was, in Shendu's words, "an unneeded distraction." They were rather easy to get rid of and didn't leave corpses, it was disappointing really, and Bree decided to the let the dragon exactly how she felt about that. She shifted into her partial animagus form, the one that she had once used to scare Snape, cat eyes, sharp teeth, and claws. She had transfigured her green contacts to match her eyes instead of just taking them out.

"Did you really think the Boss would send someone who couldn't defend themselves?" she asked.

"It appears that you are far more them you seem to be." Shendu replied.

"I'm very good at what I do, and what I do isn't very nice." Bree responded.

"Why work for a mere human when you are obviously destined for something better?" the dragon questioned.

"Just what are you talking about?" Bree asked, even though she had a pretty good guess.

"Join me and you'll be able to rule over these pathetic mortals instead of being reduced to serving them!" Shendu declared.

"You're talking world domination." Bree stated. She smirked. "Look where that got last time around. You look like a victim of Medusa. I'm not impressed, compared to the last dragon I faced your just an oversized paperweight."

"You've met other dragons?" Shendu questioned.

Bree nodded. "There was this competition you see. Steal an egg from a nesting mother. Not a real egg mind you, but the fake was tucked in with the real thing. I was creative and got one of the fastest times, but a friend of mind put on the best show. He outflew the dragon he had to steal from." She explained.

Shendu was silent for a moment. "I thought my kind was extinct." He said.

"Nah, they're around, of course, if you're a model of what ancient dragons were like then I'd say they've lost quite a bit of intelligence over the years." Bree told him. "There's quite a bit of variety and I only researched the subject for that one competition so…" she shrugged.

"Who would organize such an inane competition?" Shedu asked.

"Wizards. They're not the brightest lot, and really I think that all of their logic and common sense has been replaced by magic, very good at hiding from everyone without magic, I'll give them that." Bree replied. "Oh, I just remembered, if you ever get out of that stone-" She was interrupted.

"I am the great and powerful Shendu! I will-" Bree butted in with her own interruption.

"Okay fine, when you get out of that stone, steer clear of a wizard name Voldemort. He made a bid for immortality by splitting his soul into several pieces and creating multiple Horcruxes." She stated.

"That fool." Shendu sneered.

"So you've heard of them." Brees said.

"I trust that he's completely insane." The dragon stated.

"Madder than a hatter that's been putting mercury in his tea." Bree replied.

"I will have to remove him once I'm restored." Shendu declared. "Magic and insanity can only cause trouble.

"You're one to talk. You need to have something a little out of place upstairs to think you'd be able to rule the world with an iron fist." Bree replied. She chuckled. "Me? I prefer the shadows. If no one knows you're pulling the strings then they won't try to cut them, especially if they don't know about the strings in the first place… But to each his own I guess."

* * *

After the talk with Shendu, Bree went out. Convincing the dragon she wasn't human wasn't as satisfying as she had thought it would be. It probably had to do with the lack of facial expressions. Oh well, maybe she could find some small children to scare. Terrifying the first year had always cheered her up after all.

She found a nice park. It wasn't too far from the bank Valmont had tried to rob, but Bree had another reason for being there. Jackie Chan, the guy who kept interfering with the dark hand, lived in that neighborhood. He was an archeologist. From what she'd heard from the Dark Hand he was an Indiana Jones type of archeologist. He lived with his niece, Jade, and Uncle, who was apparently everyone's uncle, in the area. The Uncle ran an antique shop and Bree had to admit. She was curious.

At the playground she saw a young Asian girl getting laughed at. She was trying to get the other children to believe something she had said. Bree knew what that was like. Eventually the girl stormed off, headed in Bree's direction.

"Bullies can really put a damper on your day, huh kid?" Bree said when the girl got close. She looked up.

"You saw that?" she asked. Bree nodded.

"Something about them not believing something you said." she stated.

"Yeah, and I was totally telling the truth!" the girl exclaimed. She that when onto enthusiastically tell Bree about how her uncle Jackie had defeated the Dark Hand on multiple occasions in various countries. The girl was apparently the niece of the man she'd come to investigate. Bree listened patiently until she was finished.

"A lot of times if the tale is too fantastic no one will believe it without proof, even if it is true." Bree said. The girl, Jade, looked disappointed.

"But I believe you." Bree stated.

Jade suddenly adopted a shocked expression. "You do!" she exclaimed.

"I've seen things stranger than what you described." Bree replied.

"Really!" She shouted.

"I don't lie." Bree answered. It was true, but that's not to say she was honest, she just didn't tell people more than what she wanted them to know or told a truth so fantastic that it wouldn't be believed. But she didn't lie.

"So…" Jade began, dragging out the "o" sound. "What things have you seen?" she asked.

"Oh, where to begin?" Bree sighed. "Dragons, spirits, pixies, unicorns, centaurs, giant squid, and merpeople. And that's just the stuff I saw before leaving England."

"That's so cool!" Jade exclaimed. "You've gotta tell me about it."

And Bree did tell Jade about some her adventures, the water-down kid friendly versions at least. At the end of it Jade was in awe.

"Wow! You can do magic! Can you show me?" she asked excitedly. Bree hesitated for a moment and looked around. While they had been talking they had drifted into a secluded area of the park.

"Okay, just give me a moment." Bree said. She focused for a moment and shifted. Jade suddenly found herself looking down at Bree.

"Ohmygoshthatissocoolhowdidyo udothat!" Jadeshouted. Bree ears folded back at the sudden noise and she growled.

Jade covered her mouth looking sheepish. "Heh heh. Sorry." She said. "Can you talk like that?"

Bree shook her head negatively.

"Oh… it's still totally cool that you can turn into a cat though!" Jade replied.

"Jade! Jade! Where are you, it's time to go home!" a male voice, probably Jackie, called.

"Aww," Jade complained, looking toward were the voice had come from. "Maybe you can..." she trailed off as looked back and found that Bree was no longer there.

* * *

On the third day the Dark Hand actually succeeded at something. They got the dragon talisman. Its power was shooting fire blasts. Valmont used it to rob the nearest federal mint. He came back with a lot. Bree was rather shocked to see his success.

"Wow, with all this you'll be able to pay off the entire debt." She told him.

"About that, I've decided that with the dragon talisman I don't really need to pay back the debt." Valmont replied. Bree frowned.

"What do you mean?" she hissed. Valmont lifted his hand and Bree could clearly see the dragon talisman that was slowly integrating itself into his palm. Why Valmont henchmen didn't find this strange probably had to do with the dragon statue their boss took orders from. There's only so much weirdness one can take before it starts to become of part of everyday life.

"Why pay off what you can eliminate?" Valmont said. He was glowing, and no one was reacting to the glowing, or the veins on his head that looked like they were about to explode at any moment.

"Starting with-" before Valmont could finish the sentence that would have been punctuated by a giant fireball Bree pulled out her wand and summoned the talisman. It flew out of Volmont's hand, literally, and Bree caught it before stunning all of the henchmen in the room before they could figure out what had happened.

Valmont was back to normal and was still holding his hand out while staring at it rather stupidly.

"Did you really think it would be that easy?" Bree snarled, letting a bit of her animagus from bleed into her features. Valmont started backing away.

"You just had to piss me off, didn't you?" Bree snarled. "Now you're life is going to become a lot. More. Difficult. And when the time comes, you'll be paying your debt back in blood." She left, taking the talisman and as much money as she could carry with her.

* * *

Bree initiated the first step of ruining Valmont's life. She blacklisted him and his group. It's hard to run a criminal enterprise if no one else is willing to associate with you, and if anyone ignored Valmont's position on the blacklist, well, they'd be made an example of. Now Bree just had to figure out what to do with the dragon talisman.

She had no use for it. Its ability could be replicated by a well-placed blasting hex and the side effects of the talisman would be completely avoided. Valmont and the Dark Hand would want it back, which would be annoying to deal with. She decided to get rid of it.

* * *

Uncle's Rare Finds was an antique shop run by Jackie Chan's Uncle. The front room was full of antique, or possibly just junk. The back room and the upstairs were living quarters.

Uncle himself was behind the cash register when Bree walked in. He looked up at the sound of the bell on the door and scratched his head when he didn't see anyone.

"Mmrr." Bree said. Uncle looked down.

"How did cat get into shop?" he asked. Bree couldn't answer of course. Instead she leapt up onto the counter and dropped what she had been carrying in her mouth in form of Uncle. He picked it up.

"Aiiyah!" he exclaimed in surprise. "How did cat get dragon talisman?" Bree tilted her head to the side.

"Mrrow." She said.

"I will call Jackie. Tell him to come get talisman." Uncle said before doing just that. While he was talking Bree hopped down and twined around his ankles and looked up expectantly. Uncle looked down at her.

"One more thing. Stop at store and get tuna." He said. There was a pause.

"Do not question Uncle!"

Line line line

A little while later Jackie and Jade arrived.

"Did you get tuna?" Uncle asked. Jackie pulled a can out of a plastic bag. Uncle grabbed it and went to the back where there was a kitchen. Bree, Jackie, and Jade followed him. He opened the can for Bree who dug into it enthusiastically.

"Uncle, when did you get a cat?" Jackie asked.

"Cat gave dragon talisman to Uncle." Uncle replied, holding the talisman out to Jackie who took it with a shocked look.

"But how did a cat get the talisman from Valmont?" Jackie asked. "How did a cat even know where we live?"

Jade had been watching Bree rather intently. She came to a sudden realization.

"That's the cat I told you about the other day! I mean she's not a cat, she's a person that transforms into a cat!" she exclaimed.

"Jade, now is not the time for one of your stories." Jackie replied.

"But Jackie!" Jade whined. "I can prove all she has to do is turn back." She looked at Bree, or rather, where Bree had been.

Jade groaned. "She did that the other day too."

* * *

Bree felt great. The talisman was no longer her problem and she had gotten a free meal. Life was good. Now where should she go next?


	8. What a Classy Bloodsucker

**Someone once suggested a crossover with Twilight. I no idea why they thought this was a good idea considering Bree's personality.**

* * *

Around the world there are many legends of bloodsucking creatures that prey on humans. This is of course because of the many bloodsucking creatures that prey on humans in the world. Some legends are wrong; others are about the same creature that was misidentified giving rise to new legends.

The many vampire like creatures led to a few hunters and magi to classify them. In this classification system the term "vampire" means any creature that attacks humans in order to feed from them. Admittedly this loose definition can lead to a bit of crossover with the ghoul class, but that's a discussion for another day.

In popular culture the stereotypical vampire in an attractive former human who is adverse to sunlight. In the vampire classification system only three classes fit this stereotype, the A, B, and C classes.

A class vampires are the "original" western vampire. They have a mouthful of retractable fangs perfect for tearing out the throats of their victims. B class vampires are descended from A class vampires. Medieval sorcerers erected powerful wards to weaken dark and dangerous creatures. B class vampires prove that those wards worked. This is why you can't find A class vampires in the old world.

C class vampires have a rather complicated origin. A wizard wanted to be immortal. Yes, yes, I know, don't worry, this one is even more insane than snake face. This wizard tried to get a coven of vampire to turn him. He was rejected by them and every other coven he appealed to, so he decided to become a vampire through other means. And by that I mean magic. He was moderately successful, he got the hunger for blood and the agelessness down but missed the mark on a few other things. The wizard could not control is blood lust and was killed.

C class vampires don't know about other vampires or the magical community and believe themselves to be "true" vampires. This is because neither party want's anything to with C class vampires except to kill them.

It happened that in Washington had a vampire problem. It was assumed that they were C class because there was a, up until that point, docile coven of C class vampires in the area. Wes asked Bree to meet him there for a hunt since she was in the area.

* * *

Forks Washington was wet, rainy, and green. The surrounding area had a natural beauty that was rather appealing in its own way… if you weren't a hunter trying to find a rouge C class vampire that had moved in after the residential coven had left. It had apparently started a new coven in Seattle and Wes sent some hunters that way to take care of the infestation while Bree helped him lure the ringleader out.

"We could burn the forest down." Bree suggested as she walked with Wes.

"Fire is not to answer to all of lives problems." Wes replied.

"I know." Bree stated. "Fire is the question, yes is the answer." Wes couldn't tell if she was joking or not and decided to let it go.

"We need a plan that won't result in a natural disaster." He told Bree.

"We could set a trap and lure it in with vampire bait." Bree said.

"Vampire bait?" Wes questioned.

"Human blood." Bree replied.

"Are you talking about vampires?" someone interjected from behind them. Wes and Bree turned. They found themselves facing a, dark haired teenage girl. Bree frowned. If the girl was any paler her skin might as well have been translucent.

"No." Bree replied.

"But I heard you." The girl pressed.

"No you didn't." Bree insisted.

"Just drop it. She might have useful information." Wes said.

"So you were talking about vampires!" the girl said with a dull sort of excitement.

"No, we were talking about one vampire, the one that's been killing people in the area." Bree responded.

"I've only heard of wolves killing people." The girl answered.

"How stupid are the people in this town? Wolves don't drain a person's bodily fluids." Bree growled.

"So what do you know about vampires?" Wes asked.

The told them about how she had moved to Forks, been "romantically" stalked by a member of the local coven, fell in love with him, started dating, and was then dumped "for her own protection." There may have been something about a group of rouge vampires that tried to kill her and a fight that ended with the group's leader dead but all of that was lost to the girl's undying obsession with the C class vampire know as Edward.

"Useful information, huh?" Bree muttered. Wes elbowed her.

"Thank you miss we get the picture." He interjected to stop the girl's monolog about how perfect Edward was.

"Yeah, we have to take care of the rouge vampire now." Bree put in, trying to pull Wes away from the girl that obliviously needed some sort of mental help.

"You can't!" the girl exclaimed.

Bree groaned and stopped pulling at Wes. "Why not?" she asked in a resigned tone that said she knew the answer would probably be something completely insane.

"You can't win a fight with a vampire, they're too strong." The girl explained. Bree burst out laughing.

"We're not going to fight it, we're going to kill it by exploiting its weaknesses." She explained.

"They don't have weaknesses." The girl insisted. Bree rolled her eyes.

"Let's just go." Bree muttered, walking away.

* * *

Wes was sitting on a stump in the woods, pretending to be hurt and bleeding after Bree had used the "point me" spell to narrow down the location of the vampire. Okay, so he was bleeding but it wasn't as bad as he was pretending it was. It was an act to draw the vampire to some "easy prey" while Bree hid nearby with help from her perception filter.

Eventually the vampire, a red haired female, took the bait. Bree swung at her with machete but miss when the vampire moved at the last second. Her eyes moved wildly, flicking over Bree, but unable to look directly at her. Bree fired off a string of spells, but only a few hit their target, but that, coupled with a few shots from Wes's gun, was enough to bring the vampire to the ground. Bree rushed forward and lopped off her head with a few good whacks from the machete.

"Pretty good reaction time for a C class" Bree commented as she deactivated her perception filter. "

Wes shrugged. "Some C classes have a special ability. But I doubt that perception filter would have worked on an A class. It seems to work by effecting vision, but not the other senses." He explained.

"Good thing it wasn't an A class then." Bree replied as she picked up the vampire's head. There was no blood, just a bit of clear fluid, vampire venom. C class vampires had venom due to a misconception the wizard that created them had about the way human are turned into vampires.

Bree and Wes heard something stumbling around in the woods. It was heading in their direction, perhaps attracted to the sounds of the vampire being slain.

"I'll check it out, start building the pyre." Bree said before walking off. She quickly found the source of the noise, the girl they had talked to before.

"What are you doing here?" Bree asked, half her body hidden behind a tree. The girl whirled around.

""I'm here…" she began uncertainly. "I'm here to stop you from getting yourself killed."

"Ah… How exactly do you plan to do that?" Bree inquired blandly. "You look like you rolled down a hill covered in thorn bushes, you probably don't know how to fight, and you'd make an easy meal for any predator lurking in these woods, not just a vampire."

"I-I had to try. It was the right thing to do." The girl responded. Bree rolled her eyes.

"No, going home and staying the hell out of the way was "the right thing to do." This is just stupid." She stated.

"You can't go after it, you'll die!" the girl insisted. Bree chuckled.

"Oh this is the part I like best, completely undermining the beliefs of people I don't like." She said with a grin before stepping out from behind the tree so that she was fully visible.

"You're a little late you know." She told the girl. "Since I already hacked off the vampires head and all." She gave the head a little shake to emphasize her point.

"Now if you excuse me, I have a body to burn." She said before walking back to where she had left Wes. The girl followed her

The rest of the body was just starting to burn when Bree got back.

"Look what followed me home!" Bree exclaimed. "Can I keep her? I figure I can use her on the next full moon, you know, keep some meat between me and the werewolves."

"No." Wes replied. "Why did you take the head with you?" Bree blinked and held up the head.

"Alas poor vampire, I knew her not." She said and then chucked the head into the fire.

"That was Victoria." The girl stated.

"… Oh, one of the vampires from your little story!" Bree exclaimed. "Yeah, she was starting her own coven in Seattle so my uncle here sent some guys to deal with them. We came after the older vampire, match experience with experience you know? Well, my uncle has experience, I've got… well, that's none of your business anyway."

She sat down on a rock to watch the body burn.

"Were you serious? I mean what you said about the werewolves…" the girl trailed off.

Bree looked at her. "You mean the part where I suggest using you as a meat shield or the part where I imply that werewolves exist?" she asked, having caught on to what the girl meant.

"Both." The girl answered.

"Kind of, and yes, werewolves exist." Bree replied.

"I looked into the area before we came out here, there's a local pack that thinks they're werewolves but they're really more like a sub-species of skin walkers." Wes put in. The girl looked confused.

"He means that they can transform at will instead of being controlled by the phases of the moon." Bree explained.

The girl was silent for a moment.

"So is this what you two do?" she eventually asked. "Travel all around and kill monsters?" Bree grinned.

"No, this is what he does. I just happened to be the area and so we decided to make it a family outing. It went pretty well for my second hunt." Bree replied.

"Could have gone better." Wes interjected.

"It went better than my first hunt. No one is unconscious." Bree retorted. Wes went silent.

Line line line

The body had been burned to ash. Bree stood up and stretched.

"Well that's taken care of." She said. She turned to the girl.

"Have fun finding your way out of the woods."

She started to walk away.

"Stop." Wes ordered. "We can't just leave her out here."

Bree turned and looked back. "If you want to waste your time with someone that thinks vampires are the best thing since Superman that's fine, but I'm not in the "saving people" business. If it's not a friend, family member, or small child, I don't care." She replied.

"I thought you hated children." Wes stated.

Bree shook her head. "No, no, no. I hate being forced to babysit during family reunions. Seven and under, they freak me out, seriously. Their moods shift faster than a pregnant lady's and they have more energy than a coked up squirrel. It's not natural. Eight and up they're fun to traumatize." She explained.

"You are a horrible person." The girl stated.

"From your perspective." Bree agreed. From my perspective you're a vampire obsessed psychopath." And with that Bree left.

* * *

Bree waited for Wes inside of his pickup truck. It was an old Ford. Wes called it "Old Reliable" but everyone else called it "Frankentruck" because while the truck was a Ford through and through, not all the parts matched. The components that made up the body were all different colors and it looked as if the quarter panels weren't from the same year, and possibly not even the same model. The head lights didn't match, and neither did the taillights. The only thing consistent thing about the truck was the interior. Wes had made it as comfortable as possible for long drives.

Bree dozed off in the passenger seat. She woke up when Wes got into the driver's side and slammed the didn't look happy.

"So, how'd it go hero?" Bree asked as Wes started the truck and put her in gear.

"She kept falling down. The walk took twice as long as it should have from the amount of times I had to help her up." Wes answered.

"See?" Bree replied. "You should have just left her out there and let natural selection take its course."

"That wouldn't have right." Wes responded.

Bree shrugged. "Eh." She said.

"You turned out pretty selfish, didn't you?" Wes said.

"I'm out of selflessness. I used to all up to give you and everyone else I care about Death Eater immunity at the cost of my own safety and possibly my life." Bree replied.

Wes winced.

"And really, why would I turn out any other way?" Bree continued.

"What do you mean?" Wes asked.

"I've been taught the importance of helping family and standing by friends. Nothing in there about the rest of humanity." Bree explained.

Wes thought about for a moment. He couldn't recall anyone ever stressing the importance of "helping your fellow man" or anything similar. In fact Bree had probably learned to hate most people that weren't family or friends because of how she had been bullied before going to Hogwarts. That actually explained why she was so openly hostile to anyone she didn't like. She gave as good as she got.

Wes didn't have time to come up with a response because someone apparated into the middle of the road. Most people would swerve or hit the brakes if someone suddenly appeared in the middle of the road. Wes was not most people and the Death Eater was forced to dive out of the way. There was a thump and Bree bounced slightly in her seat. She looked in the rearview mirror.

"You only got his legs, put it in reverse!" she exclaimed.

Wes never got the chance to follow Bree's advice because a blasting curse hit the side of the truck and sent it rolling and it didn't stop until it rolled into a tree. Fortunately Frankentruck stopped right side up. Bree had a cut on her head from where she had collided with the window and was slightly dazed.

Wes was no worse for wear and acted quickly, unbuckling his seatbelt and kicking open the door. As soon as he was out he opened up a compartment behind the seat and pulled out a hunting rifle. He looked down the road and saw that the Death Eater he had run over was gone and healthy Death Eater was standing on the side of the road.

"They never travel alone." Bree muttered. She had stumbled out of the truck to stand next to Wes. She had her wand in one hand and a Glock she had pulled out of storage in the other.

"Hand over the girl and your death will painless!" the Death Eater shouted.

"You're out of your goddamn mind!" Wes yelled back, leveling his rifle.

The Death Eater fired a curse at him. It missed by a hair's breadth. Both Bree and Wes had pulled the trigger on their respective firearms the moment they saw the curse coming. Bree followed up with a bone breaking hex. Bree's aim was off because of her head injury and the blood dripping into her eyes. Wes's aim was spot on, the bullet hit the Death Eater in the heart, killing him instantly.

"Get the first aid kit and see what you can do to clean yourself up. I'll take care of this." Wes ordered. Bree nodded and went back to Frankentruck. Wes dragged the body into the nearby woods and covered it with brush. Once that was done he covered up any drag marks and blood that he found.

While this was happening, Bree had done everything she could short of stitching up the wound before she set about repairing the damage the Frankentruck had endured with reparo. She was able to fix the window that her head had smashed into and most of the damage to the body except where the truck was pressed up against a tree.

"Good work." Wes praised once he was done. "Now let me take a look at that cut."

He had Bree sit in the truck.

"It's a pretty clean cut, so it should be easy to stitch up, but you missed a couple pieces of glass." Wes stated as he pulled out aforementioned glass with a pair of tweezers.

"I'm not going to have to go to a hospital, am I?" Bree asked.

"I could stitch it up, but I don't have any painkillers, so it'll hurt." Wes replied.

"That's fine." Bree stated.

"You sure?" Wes pressed.

"I've had worse." Bree replied.

"Alright then." Wes responded. He pulled out a bottle of Jack Daniels from the glove compartment. He uncapped it.

"Just a sip, it'll help with the pain." He said. Bree grabbed the bottle and took a quick swig. It burned all way down before settling in her stomach.

Wes quickly stitched up the cut. When he was done Bree pulled out her cadet cap and put it on to hide the cut.

* * *

They arrived at a rundown bar outside of Seattle to meet up with the group Wes had sent to take care of the new coven. There were three men and two women.

"Bree, you already know Chris and Olivia, these other three are Eric, Aaron, and Jessica, Chris's girlfriend." Wes stated.

Chris was a sandy blonde haired twenty-three year old that had his mother's blue eyes. He was Wes's son. Olivia, Chris's mother, had brown hair with a few visible strands of gray mixed in. Eric almost measured up to Wes's 6"2' falling just a few inches short of it. He had hazel eyes, dark hair, and a five o'clock shadow. Jessica had strawberry blonde hair, brown eyes, and a faint scar on her neck. Aaron was an African American around Wes's age with a shaved head and a large build.

Bree knew Olivia and Chris from the few times she had seen them a few times at family reunions. Chris would show up sometimes without his mother and when Olivia showed up she never stayed for very long. This was mostly because of Wes's mother trying to push "traditional values" onto them. Her husband, Wes's father, had been a hunter she hadn't seen why Wes and Olivia couldn't settle down like they had. Of course she had dementia and had forgotten that he husband had been killed by a demon, half the time she forgot he was even dead. Even after the woman had died, her lingering memory still made family reunions somewhat awkward.

"So this is the magi you've been telling us about." Aaron said in a deep voice once everyone was seated at a table in the back. It was a hunter's bar so no one had asked for Bree's ID but she would have presented her with a fake one if they had.

"I still think it was a bad idea to take her with you as your only back up against that vampire." Olivia stated.

"Oh come on, it was only a C class." Chris protested.

"Still a lot more dangerous than anything she's ever faced, this was what, her second hunt?" Olivia replied.

"Just because I've only been on two hunts doesn't mean I've never faced anything more dangerous than some C class bloodsucker, it's just that they were hunting me." Bree growled.

"Wes mentioned that, but I find it hard to believe. What would some dark lord want with a teenager?" Eric asked, looking rather unimpressed by Bree.

"He thinks I'm a seer. What aspiring megalomaniac wouldn't want to know the future so they could manipulate it?" Bree replied scathingly.

"And why would he think that?" Olivia asked.

"I know things that I shouldn't." Bree answered. "It's not quite the same as being a seer but its information he shouldn't have."

"So these "Death Eaters" they're going to keep coming after you until their leader is taken out?" Chris questioned.

"Yes." Wes answered before Bree could. "Ran into a couple of them on the way here."

"Ran over one of them." Bree muttered.

"Wes said something about you using some powerful mojo to protect your family." Jessica said.

"Yeah. Reports from back home say that it's so powerful it deflected the killing curse." Bree responded.

"So Wes and Chris could use that to protect you!" Jessica suggested somewhat excitedly.

"You're saying put them between her and the Death Eaters?" Eric asked. Jessica nodded.

"Wouldn't work." Bree interjected.

"Why not?" Aaron asked. "It seems like a good idea to me."

"Because of the nature of the deal." Bree stated. Everyone at the table except for Wes and Bree stiffened. Bree rolled her eyes.

"Did you really think I could pull off something that powerful and complicated?" she inquired.

"You… made a deal?" Chris asked slowly.

"Not the way you're thinking of. It was really more like making a transaction. I made a wish, for my friends and family to be protected from Voldemort's forces. I was told the price and I agreed to pay it, so my wish was granted." Bree answered.

"What was the price?" Aaron asked after a long moment of silence.

"Pain and safety." Bree replied.

"What does that mean?" Jessica asked.

"My safety was stripped away from and I will have to endure the pain the otherwise would have been inflicted on the people I care about." Bree answered.

Eric eyed her with a new respect.

"I may have misjudged you." He said.

"You've made it so that you're guaranteed to get hurt no matter what you do." Olivia stated. "We can't stop you from getting killed."

"How are we going to do that?" Chris asked.

"We find these "Death Eaters" before they find Bree." Olivia answered.

* * *

Olivia had Bree tell her everything she knew about Death Eaters. Bree told Olivia about what she knew of the Death Eaters' past actions, their tactics, their ideals, and their known and suspected members. Olivia wrote down everything and started planning.

That night Bree stayed in a cheap motel. She dreamt of monsters in human skin.

* * *

**I used to like Twilight, but as I read through the books I started to realize how bad it was. Here are a few of the things that occurred to me.**

**Stephanie Meyer can't write. She seems to take the "quantity over quality" stance. He book would be a lot shorter if describe how good looking Edward is every page and her characters do not develop at all, unless you count Jacob, who becomes a pedophile after falling in love with a baby. **

** Stephen King agrees that Stephanie Meyer can't write 'worth a darn'.**

**Imprinting totally removes the woman's ability to choose who she wants to be with, especially with Quil imprinting on a toddler and Jacob imprinting on a baby. "Wife Husbandry" anyone?"**

**If Twilight was a fanfiction it would be as hated as "My Immortal" and Bella would be a hated Mary-Sue.**

**Bella was catatonic for four months after Edward broke up with her. That is not a healthy reaction and no one thought to get her therapy.**

**There is Twilight fanfiction that is better written than the source material. It can be hard to find, but it is there.**

**I know it appeals to teenage girls and they'll probably outgrow their obsession and look back on it the same we look at children's cartoons and think "I used to like that really?"**


	9. Alice and Agents

**Ok Doctor Who fans, in this universe the events of "Army of Ghosts" and "Doomsday" were confined to the UK. **

* * *

Interlude: Alice.

Admittedly, running away hadn't been the smartest move to make. It had been an impulsive and angry move after an argument with her Mother. It wasn't just that Alice had wanted to take a more active role in fighting Voldemort's forces. There were other powers a work competing to be the one to heat things to a boiling point. And it all started the day Bree left.

There was logic behind Lisa's decision to send Bree away. Voldemort was after Bree, he was also based in England and therefore, the best thing to do was to get Bree out of England. But Alice knew it was more than that. If Bree ran then Voldemort's forces would chase, which left less manpower in England and made the fight a little bit easier. It also made it so the Lisa didn't have to waste resources protecting Bree, resources that she could use protecting her children and husband… and Alice.

Alice hadn't been allowed to go back to the American Institute after Bree left. Instead she was kept at home where her Mother could make sure she was safe. Of course she would have been safe at the Institute since she wasn't being targeted because no one knew about her. She helped with planning and with looking after Chrissy, but she felt stifled being trapped in the house, even if it was more of a manor, and tension was building. And then Percy died.

Not really though, but that's what was reported in the Daily Prophet on page six. The truth was that Percy had been discovered as a spy and someone had been sent to kill him. The assassin was almost successful. The killing curse hit Percy dead on. It stopped only inches away from him, struggling against some invisible force before rebounding and striking the Death Eater.

Then similar things began happening to others. Some were less obvious. Nears misses and well placed stones for Death Eaters to trip on. Then there were the glaringly obvious. Like curses that hit an invisible barrier and one incident were a Death Eater tried to stab Ben. It didn't work.

Only certain people were protected, and only against the Death Eaters. Lisa looked for what connected those people and she found it. Bree. Bree was the connection. The people that were protected were people that Bree cared about. The magic involved was powerful. She had to have done something. Something foolish. They could only pray that she hadn't gone and sold her soul to a crossroads demon.

Alice realized she was protected, that there was no reason for her to be cooped up in the manor. Lisa disagreed. They fought. Alice pointed out all the responsibilities that had been given to Bree, that fact that Bree had been trusted to take care of herself without any sort of magical defense. Lisa only came up with variations off "I just want to keep you safe!"

She didn't really have a reasonable argument, and the truth was, deep down, she was overcompensating for not be able to protect Bree by being overprotective of Alice. And then Lisa called Alice by the wrong name. There was a stunned silence after that, as if neither side could believe what Lisa had just said.

Alice accused Lisa of seeing her as nothing more than a replacement for Bree and stormed out of the room. She grabbed some of her stuff and used her perception filter to slip past the security around the house.

She couldn't use the same contacts and resources that were available to Bree without Lisa finding her. Fortunately she had enough money to get her to America.

* * *

Alice was wearing a nondescript outfit consisting of green hoodie, blue t-shirt, dark jeans, and blue converse sneakers as a part of her plan. Her plan didn't really go beyond "Make sure no one can find me" but it was too late for her to turn back. Maybe if she found Bree she could help her out. After all, Alice was now immune to Death Eaters and Bree was being chased by Death Eaters…

No. Bad plan. She had no intention of stepping back into Bree's shadow. Okay, new plan. Stay on the East Coast. Bree hated the east coast. Well hate might have been too strong a word. She disliked the east coast. The cause of this dislike was rooted in a family vacation that involved some of Bree's extended family as well as her parents.

First they went to Gettysburg a drove around, looking at the monuments and visiting the battlefields. Bree felt like there was someone staring at her the whole time she was there. And then someone decided that it would be a great idea to visit old cemeteries and find the graves of dead relatives. It was terrible idea as far as Bree was concerned.

The first problem she had was the heat and humidity. It felt as if the entire state had been transformed into a sauna. If the humidity had been any higher they would have been drowning. The second problem came from the cemetery itself. As everyone knows, graveyards are creepy, no matter what time of day, there's just something off-putting about knowing that there are dead people under your feet. Old graveyards have a problem with broken or sinking headstones making it harder to tell where a grave is, let alone whose buried there.

Bree discovered a sunken headstone. Only the top three inches were above ground and they were well hidden in the grass. Bree tripped over the headstone and, thinking something had grabbed her ankle and being a seven year old girl, ran away screaming.

So, even though Alice disliked the east coast as much as Bree did due to their shared memories, she decided to stick to the east until she thought Bree had moved on to another country.

* * *

In the two years since her "birth" Alice had developed a different set of skills than Bree. There were a number of reasons for this, and the result was that Bree was good at offense and evasion while Alice was good at defense and hiding.

Evasion and hiding may sound like the same thing but there is a difference. Evasion is what you after you've been spotted. Hiding is the art of not being spotted. Alice had been taught how to cast illusions at the American Institute. That coupled with her perception filter would ensure that she would not be found until she wanted to be found.

Hiding was easy when you could grab the fabric of reality and twist it to fit your own needs, well, it was more like twisting someone's perception of reality, but the outcome was the same. Anyone sent to search for Alice would be looking for Bree's double, not a freckle faced young woman with mousey brown hair and thick glasses.

Alice was hiding in Metropolis since it was a big city that would be easy to get lost in or to lose anyone that was following you. Not that she had any proof that she was being followed, but it was safer to assume than to be caught off guard.

* * *

**Bree's story.**

* * *

The next morning Olivia demanded that Bree go through her inventory and the bigger on the inside pockets in her boots. Bree had guns, ammo, knifes made of various metals, salt, silver, holy water, medical supplies, emergency gold, non-perishable foodstuffs, three rolls of duct tape, some alien tech, Peruvian instant darkness powder and…

"What is that?" Olivia asked. Bree picked up the object in question.

"It's a time turner… I forgot I had that." She replied.

"I take it that it has something to do with time travel." Olivia stated. Bree nodded.

"It only goes one way, backwards, and it creates a closed loop so you can't change anything unless you trick yourself into believing that the event that you don't want to happen happened." She explained. "I used to have two of them, but I gave the other one to Alice a while ago."

"Where did you get them?" Olivia asked curiously.

"Ah, I stole them from the Ministry of Magic, they never noticed because the case holding them all broke and is now in a constant stated of breaking and repairing itself." Bree explained.

"I see…" Olivia replied. She thought silently for a moment. "Even with the time turner's limitations I believe it will be quite useful to you."

Bree stared perplexedly at her.

"If you find yourself in a tight spot you could easily escape by going back to before the danger was ever there." She told Bree.

"That would only work as a last resort. Using it too often would make me age faster than everyone else." Bree responded.

"It's still a good option to have in your back pocket." Olivia said. Bree made a noncommittal noise. Still, she had a point. If the options were lose an hour or so off your total lifespan or die… well the choice was obvious.

Wes walked in and looked around. "Alright, it looks like there are plenty of supplies and we don't need to get anything more so why don't you pack this up and then send Bree out to meet me in the parking lot." He said.

"Why do I need to do that?" Bree inquired.

"I'm going to teach you how to hotwire a car." Wes explained.

* * *

It was dark and raining. Wes had been driving for hours after parting ways with the other hunters who were ready to start hunting Death Eaters. Bree was sleeping in the passenger seat. He had taken her southwards, doubling back on her course for a bit before crossing the state line into Nevada.

It was a light rain, which was a good thing. Since the state of Nevada was pretty much a desert, heavier rains could lead to flash flooding that might wash a car off the road which could lead to drowning… Yes, in a desert.

He stopped at a motel once he decided it was too late to keep going. He was taking Bree to their cousin's house. Vicki lived in the suburbs I Tranquility with her husband and children. They were willing to take Bree in for a while and the list of people who owed said there was a "big ticket item" in nearby Mission City.

Wes stopped for the night at a motel when he decided it was too late to keep going. Bree probably would have been content to sleep in the truck, since she was already asleep anyway, but Wes needed a bed.

* * *

The next day was bright and sunny. When they arrived at Vicki's suburban home her two kids were running around in the yard.

Bree started mumbling under her breathe. Wes elbowed her in the ribs.

"Stop mumbling exorcisms under your breathe. They're children, not demons." He growled.

"Might as well be, children are terrifying." Bree muttered.

"Wes! Bree!" a voice called from the front door. It was a woman in her late twenties, with brown hair and blue eyes. It was Vicki.

"Thanks for doing this Vicki." Wes said as they approached the front door.

"Yeah, thanks." Bree muttered.

"I'm happy to help." Vicki replied before turning toward the yard. "Ethan! Kylie! Come say hello to your cousins!" she called.

The two children in the yard ran over. Ethan was eight and had black hair and brown eyes. Kylie, five, had looked like her mother.

"Hi Bree! Mom says you're going to be staying with us, can you do that thing with the barbeque again, it was so awesome!" Ethan said rapidly.

"Ethan! We don't talk about that!" Vicki scolded.

"Yeah." Bree said. "And it wouldn't be the same without Wally anyway."

"I guess." Ethan mumbled disappointedly.

"So, let's go inside." Vicki suggested.

* * *

Bree found the next few days to be surprisingly domestic. She had decided to only stay for four days. She left on a weekday so neither Vicki or her husband Ryan were able to take her to the bus station. As Bree was walking she saw something rather odd, a teenage boy about her age being chased by a driverless Camaro.

"This is my life now." Bree muttered.

* * *

Two giant alien robots, one smaller robot, a chase, and an epic fight later (not quite in that order, and Bree found herself in front of the last alien that she wanted to see… Other than a Dalek. Or a Weeping Angel. Or a Cyberman. Alright, so it was number four on the list of aliens she'd rather not deal with, but still.

"What is it?" a teenage girl that had gotten involved after trying to investigate what was going on with the teenage boy and the Camaro.

"It's a robot. You know, like a super advanced robot. It's probably Japanese. Yeah, it's definitely Japanese." The boy answered.

"It's cybertronian." Bree stated. Everyone looked at her. The alien seemed to be the most surprised.

"What?" the boy asked.

"Alien." Bree clarified as she walked toward the once Camaro.

"What are you doing?" the girl asked, alarmed.

"If it wanted to hurt us, we'd be hurt… or dead." Bree replied.

"Really? Well, do you spea kalien? Because they just had, like, a giant droid death match!" thegirl exclaimed.

Bree sighed. "Can you talk?" she asked, looking up at the alien.

"XM Satellite One...Digital Cable brings you...Columbia Broadcasting System" The reply came from the radio.

"So, you... so you talk through the radio?" the boy said.

The robot clapped it's hands together. "Thank you, you're beautiful! You're wonderful, you're wonderful."

"So what was that last night? What was that?" the boy asked.

"Message from Starfleet, Captain...Throughout the inanimate vastness of space... And angels will rain down like visitors from Heaven! Hallelujah!" the robot answered.

Bree thought for a moment. Message… space… rain down…

"So you sent out a message to your… comrades in space and… and they're going to be coming here… I mean to earth." She guessed.

The cybertronian nodded and transformed into a Camaro.

"Any more questions you want to ask?" asked John Wayne.

"He wants us to get in the car." The boy said.

The girl laughed nervously. "And go where?" she asked.

"Fifty years from now, when you're looking back at your life, don't you want to be able to say you had the guts to get in the car?" the boy replied.

* * *

Bree was in the driver's seat of the Camaro. The boy was in the passenger's seat and the girl was in the back.

"So, uh… I'm Sam and this is Michaela." The boy said.

"You can call me Felicity. It's not my real name, but it will do for today since I appear to be having some kind of weird luck." Bree replied.

"Why can't you just tell us you're real name?" Michaela asked.

"I don't trust you. It's nothing personal. I just don't trust anyone these days." Bree answered.

"We're on a crazy alien road trip together we should be able to trust each other." Sam put in.

"It's safer this way, for all of us." Bree replied. There was a long moment of awkward silence.

"How do you know what they're called?" Michaela eventually asked.

"Because two groups of cybertronians have been at war with each other for more years than you can possibly imagine and other species scavenge tech from their battlefields and either use it or sell it. Of that scavenged tech, only a small percentage makes it to earth, making it the Holy Grail of alien tech." Bree answered. She paused for a moment. "Well actually, when you consider the misfortune that falls upon anyone who gets their hands on the stuff, it's more the Hope Diamond."

"What do you mean "misfortune"?" Sam questioned.

"It's highly advanced, very rare, alien technology that, in the hands of someone with the right set of skills and sufficient intelligence, could be reverse engineered, further developed, and used to advance the goals of an individual or a group, and people kill over it… Well the stuff that isn't obviously scrap anyway, but even scrap has some value."

"So can you tell us more about them? Like why they might be here?" Michaela asked.

Bree shrugged. "What I've told you is third maybe fourth hand information from someone that talked to someone that talked to an alien that salvaged some tech of a battlefield after the surviving combatants were light-years away. Most races avoid cybertronians so there isn't really a lot of information available. You could ask me about almost any other race and I'd be able to tell you quite a bit more." She replied.

"How do you know so much anyway?" Michaela inquired. "This isn't something you just stumble onto."

"It's complicated." Bree replied tersely.

"Well does the government know about them? What about the Justice League?" Sam asked.

"It depends on which branch of which government. A lot of people are kept out of the loop for a reason. And as for the…" Bree faltered as Sam's second question registered. She shook her head to clear her thoughts. "Justice… League… I have no idea… And now I'm getting a headache…"

The three teens were silent for a long time until Michaela spoke up again.

"What I want to know is, if he's such an advanced alien robot, why does he turn into a piece of crap Camaro?" she asked. That got them kicked out of the car.

It came back though, as a brand new Camaro that looked as if it has just gotten out of the factory.

* * *

After a while the Camaro finally stopped driving when they were well outside the city limits. They had a perfect view to watch the other cybertronians arrive. Four fireballs streaked though the darkened sky before smashing to earth somewhere far off. Now they just had to wait for the other aliens to meet up with them.

Eventually four vehicles pulled up. A blue Peterbuilt with flames painted on it, a rescue hummer, a black GMC Topkick, and a silver Pontiac Solstice. The vehicles suddenly exploded into action and transformed. The three humans were left standing in the middle of a group of five cybertronians. Sam and Michaela stared up in awe. Bree sighed and looked for possible escape routes in case the enemy, theirs or hers, turned up.

The Peterbuilt crouched down in front of them.

Are you Samuel James Witwicky, descendent of Captain Archibald Witwicky?" it asked Sam.

"It knows your name." Michaela whispered.

"Ye- Yes." Sam stuttered out in answer to the Peterbuilt.

"My name is Optimus Prime. We are autonomous robotic organisms from the planet Cybertron," said the Peterbuilt.

"Or, more conveniently, Autobots," interjected the hummer.

"Autobots?" Mikaela repeated, not looking away Optimus.

"What's crackin' little bitches?" the Pontiac asked.

"My first lieutenant, designation: Jazz," Optimus Prime explained.

"This looks like a cool place to kick it," Jazz stated, doing something like a dance move before lounging on a battered car.

"W-where'd he learn to talk like that?" Sam asked.

"We have learned Earth's languages through the World Wide Web," Optimus answered before moving on with introductions.

"Our weapons' specialist: Ironhide." The Topkick produced a set of cannons.

"Are ya feeling lucky, punks?"

"Easy, Ironhide!" Optimus reprimanded.

"What?" Ironhide questioned, his cannons disappearing. "I just wanted to show them my cannons."

"Our Chief Medical Officer: Ratchet." Optimus continued.

"The boy's pheromone level indicate that he wants to mate with one of the females." The hummer reported.

"And I'll be over there." Bree stated, moving away from Sam and Michaela.

"You already know your guardian, Bumblebee." Optimus continued. Sam turned to look Bumblebee.

"So you're my guardian." He said.

"His vocal processors were damaged in battle, I haven't been able to repair him yet." Ratchet stated.

"So, I know that you Autobots are at war with another faction, but why have you come to earth?" Bree asked.

"We are here looking for the All Spark. And we must find it before Megatron." Optimus answered.

"Mega-what?" Sam said.

Optimus put a hand to the side of his head. There was a small whir issued from the red and blue robot as the scenery around them changed, turning into an unfamiliar, metallic world. The ground took on a dark sheen as parts of it cracked and fell away, revealing molten rock and all around them large towers and spiked spires rose out of the ground. Sam stumbled back into Mikaela as a spire sprouted close to them.

"Our planet was once a powerful empire, peaceful and just, until we were betrayed by Megatron, leader of the Decepticons. All who defied them were destroyed. Our war finally consumed the planet, and the All Spark was lost to the stars. Megatron followed it to Earth, where Captain Witwicky found him..." Optimus stated.

"My grandfather." Sam said.

"It was an accident that intertwined our fates." Optimus explained. "Megatron crash landed in the arctic circle, the cold put him into stasis. Your grandfather accidentally activated Megatron's navigation system. The coordinates to the Cube's location on Earth were imprinted on his glasses."

"How did you know about his glasses?" Sam asked.

"E-bay." Optimus replied.

"If the Decepticons find the All Spark, they will use its power to transform Earth's machines and build a new army." Ratchet stated.

"And the human race will be extinguished. Sam Witwicky, you hold the key to Earth's survival." Optimus continued.

"Please tell me that you have those glasses." Michaela begged.

It turned out that Sam didn't have the glasses. They would have to drive back into the city and go to Sam's house to get them.

The autobots transformed back into their respective vehicle forms.

"Well?" Sam asked when Bree remained where she was instead of getting into Bumblebee's cab.

"There's no room." Bree replied flatly.

"You didn't have a problem before." Sam pointed out.

"I was in the driver's seat before, now you're in the driver's seat and Michaela's in the passenger's seat which means I'll have to sit in the back." Bree explained.

"So?" Michaela said.

"I don't want to sit in the back." Bree replied.

"It's not that bad." Michaela responded.

"Then you get in the back." Bree told her.

"Ya know" Jazz began, interrupting the staring contest before it began. "There are other 'bots around here willin' to give someone a lift."

* * *

"So how did ya know 'bout us 'bots?" Jazz asked after they had gotten on the road. "I thought most humans were outta the loop."

"I'm not most humans." Bree replied.

"So I gathered. 'Bee said ya wouldn't tell the other humans yer real name." Jazz stated.

Bree frowned. "I thought Bumblebee couldn't talk." She said, suspicion lacing her voice.

"Well he din't exactly say it. We 'bots have more than one way of communicatin' with each other." Jazz answered. Bree relaxed slightly.

"Then Bumblebee probably told you what I told Sam and Michaela when they asked the same thing." She guessed.

"Yeah, but I wanna know who the "someone that talked to someone that talked to an alien" is." Jazz explained.

"My cousin." Bree replied flatly. "He works in shipping and heard about cybertron from an acquaintance that wanted to ship some cybertronian tech out of the country."

"Do ya know anything 'bout the aliens that 'ave been salvaging our tech and bringin' it to earth?" Jazz asked.

Bree shrugged. "I know what aliens have visited earth but I don't know what they bring with them." She answered.

"So then, what aliens 'ave visited earth?" Jazz inquired.

Bree sighed. "Racnoss, Adipose, Daleks, Cybermen, Weeping Angels, Autons, Saturnyn, the 4-5-6, Abzorbalovians, Atraxi, Gelth, some of the Bees, Judoon, Carrionites, and Vashta Nerada, to name a few.

"That was a few?" Jazz questioned incredulously.

Bree grinned. "Well there's still the Silence, Vinvocci, Pyroviles, Toclafane,Sontarans, Krillitanes, Nostrovites, Plasmavores, Sycorax-"

"Ok, ah get it." Jazz interrupted. "A lot of aliens have been to earth… but if that's true than why doesn't every human know 'bout them?"

"Well, some of them disguise themselves, kind of like you guys, but most other races try to pass for human, unless they use something like a perception filter to make so people will see them without really seeing them. There are some that can make you forget you ever saw them, some that use cloaking and the more hostile races will kill any witnesses." Bree explained. "That are also government agencies, like Torchwood and UNIT, that work to ensure that the truth about aliens is kept from the public in order to avoid mass hysteria. If everyone knew how many times the human race has faced extinction just in the past year couple of years the planet would descend into chaos."

"Aren't you exaggeratin' a little?" Jazz asked.

"I'm talking to an alien who is on a mission to find a powerful object before the evil aliens find it and raise an army that will destroy the human race. I am not exaggerating." Bree replied.

"…So why won't you tell anyone yer real name?" Jazz inquired, changing the subject.

Bree frowned and got quiet. "That's personal." She muttered, seconds of awkward silence ticked by.

"Seen any good movies lately?" Jazz asked.

* * *

Sam's house was located in a suburban neighborhood with manicured lawns and well maintained houses. It wasn't quite the cookie cutter perfection of Privet Drive, but it wasn't Bree's more laid back neighborhood where weeds weren't the worst thing to have ever happened to a yard. Well, Bree's former neighborhood anyway. Bree hadn't even seen her parents' new house. She didn't want to. She wasn't sure how she would react. Her parents had left her in England, at Lisa's insistence. It was for their own safety, but it still hurt if she thought about it too much.

They parked in a side street next to Sam's house

"Okay, I need you to stay here. You've got to stay here and watch them." Sam told the two girls.

"Yeah fine." Bree replied.

"All of them, do you hear me?" Sam pressed.

"Okay, okay." Mikaela responded.

"Five minutes, alright?" Sam said before running across the grass in his backyard.

The lights came on and Sam's father poked his head out of the door. Sam then spent a few minutes talking to his dad trying to get him back in the house. Bree didn't really pay attention since she was more concerned about the alien robots.

They transformed almost as soon as Sam's father was back in the house. Bree buried her face in her hands as the Autobots trampled Sam's backyard. She didn't know wheter or not to laugh, cry, or just transform into a cat and run far away. She didn't look up again until Sam picked up his dog and began scolding it for peeing on Ironhide's foot.

Ironhide had his cannons out again.

"You have a rodent infestation. Shall I terminate?" he said.

"Nononono." Sam protested. "He's not a rodent, he's a Chihuahua. This is my Chihuahua. We love Chihuahuas, don't we?" he looked around wildly.

"No, they're small and yappy." Bree replied.

"You're not helping!" Sam hissed.

"He leaked lubricants all over my foot."Ironhide complained.

"He peed on you?" Sam asked. "Bad Mojo. Bad." He scolded, shaking the dog slightly.

"Bad Mojo." Ironhide repeated.

"Okay. Now I need you to go hide." Sam told Optimus.

"Just hurry." Optimus replied.

Sam ran into the house an up to his room. Bree could see he him rifling through his stuff in the upstairs window.

"Autobots, recon." Optimus ordered.

"This is the exact opposite of hiding." Bree muttered as she watched the Autobots stomp around.

They were obviously impatient and after a few minutes Optimus leaned down and addressed Bree and Mikaela.

"You need to help Sam find the glasses." He stated.

"How do you expect us to get past Sam's parents?" Bree questioned.

Optimus help out his hand. "I'll help you." He replied.

What happened next made Bree sympathize with all small pets of the world. Being held by a creature several times larger than you are can make you feel helpless and terrified. Bree scrambled through the open window, followed by Michaela.

"What are you doing?" Sam asked.

"We're going to help you." Michaela answered.

"Okay." Sam replied.

"Please hurry." Optimus said.

"Okay yeah, it's definitely gone." Sam stated.

"What do you mean? Michaela asked.

"The glasses were in the bag. They were in the backpack and the backpack isn't here." Sam explained as he panicked.

"Sam, just calm down." Bree ordered, grabbing Sam by the shoulders. "Okay, now breathe. Deep breathe in.

Sam followed her instructions and inhaled deeply.

"and out… okay good." Bree said. "Now think, where's the last place you had the backpack?" She let go of Sam.

"I don't know okay." Sam replied. "I don't remember just look over there. I'll take this corner over here."

Michaela moved a box and was about to look through it when Sam stopped her.

"No, no. Not there." He exclaimed. "That's private. Sorry. That's nothing."

"Its porn, isn't it?" Bree asked as she rifled through some stuff near a fish tank.

"No. I don't have- I mean I don't look at porn, okay." Sam replied defensively.

There was a noise outside. The three teens looked out the window. The Autobots had transformed and were parked… in the middle of Sam's backyard.

"That's not hiding. This is my backyard, not a truck-stop!" Sam shouted. The teens went back to searching and the Autobots transformed again.

"Sam, he's back here." Michaela said. Bree looked up. Optimus was by the window again. Bree pulled out her wand while everyone was distracted.

"Point me." She muttered. The wand pointed down. Bree looked down at the floor. Great. The glasses were downstairs.

"Sam, are you sure the glasses aren't somewhere else in the house?" Bree asked when Sam finished scolding Optimus and moved away from the window.

"I don't –" Sam was cut off when the house shook and the power went off. Rushing to the window the teens found that Ratchet had run into the power lines.

Seeing that the whole block had been plunged into darkness the Autobots decided to "help" by shining their headlights into the room. And then Sam's dad started pounding on the door.

"Sam, are you in there? Open the door! You know I don't allow locked doors in my house!" he shouted.

"You know he'll start counting if you don't open the door!" Sam's mother called.

"I give up. I officially give up." Bree muttered. She stuck her head out the window. "Stop it with lights and go hide. Sam's parents are right outside the door." She told the Autobots. They finally listened and went to the street to hide in their vehicle forms.

Bree turned to Sam and Michaela. "Right, so it was nice meeting you both. I'm just going to jump out of the window now." She had grabbed the window frame and had just put one foot on the windowsill when Sam grabbed her.

"Nonononono. I can't explain a dead body to my parents." He said. "Just hide somewhere." He ran over to the door where his father had started counting and flung it open.

"What's up? What's up with the bat?" he asked.

"Who where you talking to?" his mother asked.

"I'm a child, a teenager." Sam replied defensively.

"What was that light?" his father asked.

"What light? There was no light." Sam answered. "You've got two lights in your hands, that's what it was."

"There was light under the door." His father stated.

"Maybe it bounced." Sam replied. "Look you've got to knock, okay. You can't just barge into my room."

"We knocked!" his mother replied.

"You didn't knock, you were screaming at me." Sam snapped. "This is repression, what you're doing here. You're ruining my youth."

"You're being so defensive." His mother stated. "Were you… masturbating?"

That was it. Bree emerged from her hiding place, much to the shock of Sam's parents.

"Hi. I'll just be going now." She said. Seeing that Bree had given up Michaela emerged as well.

"Hi, I'm Michaela, this is Felicity. We're friends of Sam's." she told Sam's parents.

"Oh, wow they're pretty. Aren't they the prettiest girls?" Sam's mother said.

Sam's father didn't seem to be able to form a sentence. "Oh, wow son, wow."

"They can here you talking, Mom." Sam said.

"So yeah, this day makes the top fifteen." Bree stated.

"Top fifteen what?" Sam asked.

"Worst days of my life." Bree replied.

"Okay, uh, mom, do you know where my backpack is?" Sam asked.

"Oh, it's in the kitchen." His mother replied.

* * *

"I need you to distract my parents while I take the glasses out to them." Sam told the girls after he had gotten the glasses. Before anything could be done there was a commotion by the front door.

Bree looked and the scene and twitched. Black suits. Men in black suits. Not Silence. Wait, how did she remember what silence looked like? No one was supposed to remember what they looked like. But she remembered without ever seeing them, what would happen if she actually saw them. And now her head hurt.

"What is this?" Sam asked.

"Hello son, is your name Sam?" the lead suit asked him.

Bree shoved the issue of the Silence out of her mind and focused on what was going on around her. Suits in the yard, suits in the house, suits with detection devices, and all had guns. Perfect.

"Yeah." Sam replied.

"Well, I need you to come with us." The agent stated.

"Whoa, way out of line!" Sam's father exclaimed.

"Sir, I am asking politely. Back off." The agent ordered.

"You're not taking my son." Sam's father declared.

"Really?You gonna try to get rough with us?" the agent asked incredulously.

"No, but I'm gonna call the cops because there's something fishy going on around here." Sam's father answered.

"Yeah. There's something a little fishy about you, your son, your little Taco Bell dog and this whole operation you got going on here." The agent replied.

"What operation?" Sam's father inquired.

"That is what we are gonna find out." The agent stated.

* * *

The three teens found themselves handcuffed in the back of a black SUV. Bree sighed and stared at the roof of the car.

"So, LadiesMan217." The lead agent began. "That is your eBay username, right?"

"Yeah, but, you know, it was a typo and I ran with it." Sam replied.

"What do you make of this?" the agent played a recording.

_"My name is Sam Witwicky, okay? And my..."_

"Is that you?" the agent asked.

"Yeah, that sounds like LadiesMan." Michaela replied.

"Last night at the station, you told the officer your car transformed. Enlighten me." The agent ordered.

"Well, here's what I said, okay?" Sam began. "'Cause this is a total misunderstanding that my car had been stolen..."

"Really?" the agent inquired.

"...from me, from my home," Sam clarified. "But it's fine now because it's back! It came back!"

"Well, not on its own." Michaela interjected.

"Well, no." Sam agreed.

"Because cars don't do that, because that would be crazy." Michaela continued. Forced laughter filled the car from the agent, Sam, and Michaela.

"That's funny. That is so funny. So what do you kids know about aliens, huh?" the laughter cut off as soon as the agent finished speaking.

"What species?" Bree asked, still staring at the roof.

"What was that?" the agent replied. Bree sighed and looked the agent in the eye.

"What species?" Bree repeated. "Auton, Vashta Nerada, Slitheen, Blathereen, Dalek, Cyberman, Weeping Angel, Sontaran, Zocci. Which one?"

"You see this?" the agent said holding up his badge. "This is an I-can-do-whatever-I-want-and-get-away-with-it badge. Do not play games with me."

"I'm not playing games… Simmons is it?" Bree replied, reading the agents badge. "But you're "Sector Seven" can't be that important if you're this far out of the loop. You're not the only agency researching aliens and hiding their existence from the world. Of course, they're apparently a lot more competent at their jobs. The one we've got back in England is called Torchwood." She had to fight back a grin.

"You're British?" Sam asked.

"I'm sure you heard about Canary Warf." Bree said to Simmons.

"The terrorist attack." Simmons replied.

"That's the cover story." Bree answered. "What it really was Torchwood One screwing up royally and getting themselves, and a lot of other people, killed after they started experimenting with something they didn't understand." She paused for a moment.

"You don't believe me, do you?" she asked.

"We'd know if aliens were involved with Canary Warf." Simmons replied. Bree grinned.

"Right, right, it's not like Torchwood has a memory erasing drug or the backing of the Queen… oh wait. It has exactly that." Bree stated. "Oh, but they couldn't be hiding the fact that aliens make regular non-hostile visits to earth in order to sell technology on the black market to make a tidy profit. It's not as if criminals know more about aliens than Sector Seven Agents. And it's not like I have alien technology on my person right this very second because you'd know about that, right."

There was an uncomfortable silence as everyone stared at Bree.

"You have alien technology." Simmons stated.

"Of course, not, because you'd know about that right?" Bree replied. "Why I bet you even know my real name."

"Look, you're going to tell me everything you know or I'll lock you away forever." Simmons snarled.

"Don't listen to him. He's just pissy 'cause he's got to get back to guarding the mall." Michaela snapped.

"You, in the training bra, do not test me. Especially with your daddy's parole coming up." Simmons growled.

"What? Parole?" Sam questioned.

"It's nothing." Michaela replied.

"Oh, grand theft auto, that ain't nothing?" Simmons questioned mockingly.

"Well compared shooting a guy and leaving his body on the side of the road." Bree replied.

"You shoot a guy!" Sam exclaimed.

"Well it's not like I'm just things to stall for time." Bree responded.

At that moment there was a crash and the SUV was lifted into the air.

"Except that I totally am." Bree finished once everyone was done screaming.


	10. War Brought Home

**Alice**

* * *

"I'm a horribible- horble- habrle- bad mother! I drove my baby out into the dark dangurous- daggerous- bad world!" Lisa slurred waving her drink around, making some of it spill out of the glass.

She was reclining on a couch in her office. Fiona one of her bodyguards, was sitting on Lisa's desk, long legs dangling off the edge. Fiona's brother Owen, Lisa's other bodyguard, was leaning against the wall.

"Well you could have let her out of the house more." Fiona told Lisa. This brought on a new wave of tears.

"Fiona! Be nice. You're supposed to console her in her time of need." Owen reprimanded.

"I don't get paid for that." Fiona replied. Owen sighed.

"Well you don't have to make it worse." He stated.

"But there isn't anything else to do until she sobers up and starts running her business like she's supposed to. With her three sheets to the wind and Vince still recovering there's no one to come up with market strategies, making investments, or telling us who to kill." His sister complained.

"I'm right here you know." Leo stated from where he was seated behind Lisa's desk.

"Be quiet Leo, adults are talking." Fiona replied.

"You're brother and are the same age." Leo responds as he sifted through paperwork.

"So has Vince picked someone to replace Otto yet?" Owen asked, desperately wanting to change the subject before a fight broke out.

"He considering Otto's niece." Leo replied.

"You mean Bree's old babysitter?" Fiona asked. "I thought she wanted to be a teacher."

"As a muggleborn she's finding it very hard to get a job, considering the times." Leo replied.

"Because of the Death Eaters you mean." Owed stated.

"Actually I meant the economy but the Death Eaters aren't helping much there either. Spreading fear with their attacks and sadness with their dementors makes people relucktent to leave their homes, let alone buy anything." Leo sighed.

"So is this girl actually qualified? Vince isn't just hiring her because of her connection to Otto, is he?" Fiona inquired.

"Of course not." Leo replied. "Chloe has been trained in marksmanship by her grandfather and learned Krav Maga at her Mother's insistence once she moved out."

"Wasn't her grandfather one of our best sharpshooters?" Owen asked.

"Yes." Leo answered.

"I'm going to have so much fun corrupting her!" Fiona exclaimed.

* * *

Down the Hall from Lisa's office was Vince's office. Vince pretending to be looking through personnel files of potential replacements for Otto. He had actually gone for "considering" to "decided" but hadn't yet told anyone other than Ben. The papers he was looking through weren't personnel files, they were reports disguised as personnel files.

"Sir, you know I am loyal to you." Ben stated.

"I know Ben." Vince replied, not looking up from the reports.

"And I would normally never question your judgment." Ben continued.

"I know Ben." Vince repeated.

"But I have to ask, why haven't you told your wife were Alice is?" Ben inquired. Vince sighed and finally looked up.

"If I told Lisa where Alice is Lisa would attempt to drag Alice back. If she did that they would fight and make each other miserable. This way, Lisa will be able to focus on other things once she's done with her fit and I'll know that Alice is safe and that there are people who will interfere on her behalf should she need help but Alice doesn't know that they're there so she'll get the freedom she wanted and the opportunity to grow." Vince explained.

"It sounds an awful lot like you're paying people to stalk your daughter." Ben responded.

"I've ordered them to as indirect as possible, but that is essentially what I'm doing." Vince answered.

"That's a little creepy sir." Ben stated.

"I know Ben." Vince replied.

* * *

**I know you're asking yourselves, why wouldn't Vince arrange the same thing for Bree as he has for Alice? There are a number of reasons. Bree is traveling the globe which would make it impractical and a drain on resources better spent elsewhere, any bodyguard assigned to Bree would defiantly be put in the line of fire while with Alice it's only a maybe, and Bree has more extensive combat training than Alice, essentially learning to keep herself alive after she started making powerful enemies. Alice wasn't given any such preparation because very few people relevant to the plot even know she exists.**

* * *

**Bree**

* * *

As it turned out, the supports that hold up the roof of an SUV are not meant to hold the weight of the SUV as it dangles by the roof, something the occupants of aforementioned when the roof tore away like the lid of aluminum can. The SUV landed with a heavy thunk. The agents in the veilcle stared up at Optimus. Michalea stared at Bree.

"You knew this would happen." She stated while at the same moment Sam, rather sarcastically, introduced the agents to Optimus.

"I inferred it, given what I did know." Bree told Michaela.

"Taking the children was a bad move." The Autobot leader growled. "Autobots, relieve them of their weapons."

Jazz used some sort of magnet to do just that.

"Hey, hey big guy!" Bree exclaimed, getting the Prime's attention. "Legal adult here. Not a child!" she shouted as she worked the handcuffs off of her wrists. Optimus acknowledged her with a nod before addressing the agents again.

"You don't seem afraid. Are you not surprised to see us?" he asked.

"Look, there are S-Seven protocols, okay?" Simmions replied. "I'm not authorized to communicate with you except to tell you I can't communicate with you."

"You're eighteen?" Sam asked Bree, completely ignoring the exchange between agent and robot happening within arms reach.

"That's not what I said. I said that legally I'm adult. Have been since my seventeenth birthday, which was July." Bree answered.

"What about your parents?" Sam inquired. Bree's eyes darkened.

"Doesn't matter." She replied, twirling the handcuffs on one finger. Ben wouldn't be happy it had taken her that long, but it wasn't a skill she had practiced much. Michaela on the other hand was out before Bree was.

"You're good with handcuffs, too, now, huh?" Sam asked when Michaela started working on his cuffs.

"It's a good skill to have." Bree stated. She noticed that she being stared at by agents and aliens. With the agents it was understandable, they now had just that much more information but the aliens… Was that sympathy on their faces? Or was it pity? Hard to tell with aliens. Maybe she shouldn't have been so open ended and vague.

"Okay, enough with the staring. Agents, out of the car." Bree ordered.

"Just because your friends are here doesn't mean you can order me around." Simmons growled.

"Today I was supposed to go to Mission City." Bree began calmly. "It was supposed to be a normal day for me. Instead I get caught up with cybertronians and the day gets pushed into the top fifteen worst days of my life. You have pushed it into the top ten. Now get out of the car before I kick you between the legs until you pass out from the pain and then I'll keep kicking you until you _bleed_!" she ended with a shout. The agents scrambled to get out of the car.

Sam and Michaela gaped at Bree.

"Today has not been a good day for me." She told them.

"How is it not your number one?" Sam asked.

"Well, no one's dead, I haven't had to run for my life, haven't been tortured, and I haven't been kidnapped by accident because some psychopath was after one of my classmates. This day makes the list just because of how irritating it is." Bree replied. People were staring again.

"My life is screwed up. I realize this, I accept this, I've gotten used to it. The sooner you all do, the better it will be for your sanity." She told them. "Now line up so I can handcuff you all to this convenient pole."

Bree was rather creative when she handcuffed the agents. Simmons got handcuffed to the pole and the next agent got his hand cuffed to Simmons ankle and so on down the line until she ran out of agents.

Michaela had suggested taking Simmons pants since the man had threatened her father. Bree told the other teen that she didn't really want to see the guy in his underwear so Simmons got to keep his pants.

"You know what you're doing is all kinds of illegal." Simmons told Bree as she fished his badge out of his pocket.

"Only to people to exist and Sector Seven doesn't exist therefore S-Seven agents don't exist, ergo, you don't exist." Bree replied. She held up his badge to Sam and Michaela. "What do you think? Great souvenir of an incident that never happened, right?"

Sam stepped forward.

"Where are my parents?" he demanded.

"I am not at liberty to discuss it." Simmons replied.

"We really don't have time for this." Bree complained. "They'll probably have reinforcements head this way any moment."

Speak of the devil and he shall appear, with lights flashing, sirens blaring, and helicopters as back up.

* * *

And once again Bree found herself captured by the S-Seven agents. She could have escaped. There had been a perfect opportunity for her to get away while the agents were distracted capturing Bumblebee. The guilt, had she left him there, would have been too much. If she had used magic maybe she would have succeeded, but there were too many witnesses. Government agent witnesses. She was sympathetic, not stupid.

And now, after being held in a room for a few hours, she was in a helicopter along with Sam, Michaela, an overweight black guy, and some Australian blond that had introduced themselves as Glen and Maggie.

"So... What'd they get you for?" Glen asked.

"Bought a car. Turned out to be an alien robot." Sam replied.

"I should have just let him get murdered by the ghost car, but no, being a stupid hero is apparently infectious. I should punch Harry the next time I see him." Bree muttered so that only she could hear. Her eyes were squeezed shut and she had a white knuckled grip on the seat.

"Are you okay?" Maggie asked.

"No. I'm in a helicopter and I should have just let Sam get murdered by his damn ghost car!" Bree shouted.

"He's an alien." Sam replied.

"I didn't know that! I thought you were being chased by freaking Christine!" Bree yelled.

"Just calm down. Flying is the safest way to travel, right?" Michaela said.

"That only applies to planes!"

Needless to say, it was a long flight.

* * *

The Hoover Dam provided an excellent opportunity to escape. Bree would just have to jump over the wall into the lake and use the bubblehead charm to stay underwater until she put some distance between herself and the agents. Then she could contact UNIT somehow and tell them how badly Sector Seven was screwing things up. The agents wouldn't expect it either.

She would have done it too if she hadn't spotted something at a crucial moment. A Death Eater. A Death Eater who was highly unlikely to try anything as long as there were government agents around. For now, Sector Seven, even if it was leading her into the complete unknown, was the safer option. But she could only stay safe for so long.

They got a brief introduction to the Secretary of Defense, John Keller, and the head of Sector Seven, Tom Banachek. There were men from the military there as well, Captain Lennox and Sargent Epps.

"Alright, here's the situation: you've all had direct contact with the NBEs." Simmons stated as he and Banacheck lead the group through the dam.

"NBEs?" Epps questioned.

"Non-Biological Extraterrestrials. Try and keep up with the acronyms." Simmons replied.

"They're called Cybertronians." Bree interjected.

"They told you that?" Banacheck asked. Bree rolled her eyes.

"It's pretty common knowledge if you're in the loop which you aren't otherwise you wouldn't be treating friendlies as hostiles." She replied. "You're in the running with Torchwood One for "World's Stupidest Secret Government Organization." But do lead on."

"What you're about to see is beyond classified." Banacheck stated.

A vault-like door was opened revealing a long dim tunnel. The two agents led the group down the tunnel.

"Dear god, what is this?" Keller asked in shock. Bree felt similar sentiments, though for different reasons.

"We think, when he made his approach over the North Pole, our gravitational pull screwed up his telemetry," Banachek explained as he and Simmons led them further into the cold hangar, "He crashed in the ice, probably a few thousand years ago. We shipped him here to this facility in 1934."

"We call him NBE-1," Simmons supplied.

"First off, his name is Megatron. Second, this is a little bit like finding out your neighbor has an elder god chained in his basement." Bree interjected. "I can't decide if I should run away in terror or scream at you for not thinking of what will happen to the dam when this guy gets loose."

"That won't happen. We have security protocols in place." Simmons replied. "Fact is, you're looking at the source of the modern age, the microchip, lasers, spaceflight, cars- all reverse-engineered from studying him. NBE-1. That's what we call it."

"You really need to do some fact checking there Simmons. First self-propelled vehicle was made in the late seventeen hundreds and technological innovations come from all over the globe and Sector Seven doesn't seem to be into shareing. You sir are lying, exaggerating, or just plain wrong." Bree responded. Simmons looked angry.

"You didn't think the United States Military might need to know that you're keeping a hostile alien robot frozen in the basement?" Keller demanded before Simmons could say anything more.

"You mean you didn't know about this?" Bree asked incredulously. "Queen Victoria founded Torchwood and since then the Monarch has always had a hand in it."

"Until these events, we had no credible threat to national security, so there was no reason for the president to know." Banacheck answered.

"Not even as a heads up, "Hey we have this thing here, there might be more of them somewhere." No wonder you haven't made contact with any other species, they're all too busy laughing their collective asses off." Bree replied.

"Other species?" Keller questioned.

"Later." Bree answered. "Right now you need to be asking yourself, why are the Cybertronians interested in earth?"

"It's the All Spark." Sam told everyone.

"All Spark? What is that?" Keller inquired.

"Well, yeah, they came here looking for some sort of cube-looking thing." Sam began. "Anyway, Mr. NBE One here, AKA Megatron, that's what they call him, who's pretty much the harbinger of death, wants to use the Cube to transform human technology to take over the universe. That's his plan."

"And you're sure about that?" Simmions asked.

"Yeah." Sam replied.

Simmons and Banacheck exchanged a looked.

"You know where it is." Bree stated grinning darkly.

"Follow me." Said Banacheck.

* * *

The two agents had led the group to another part of the dam until they reached a door.

"You're about to see our crown jewel." Simmons bragged as he opened the door and ushered them into an observation room.

"Carbon dating puts the cube here around 10,000 B.C.E. The first seven didn't find it until 1913," Banachek explained as everyone took in the sight beyond the large window.

The All Spark was a metal cube roughly the size of a house and was covered in cybertronian glyphs. At least Bree assumed they were cybertronian. The goblin made translation key didn't translate alien language as well as the TARDIS's universal translator did and the effects of that particular device had worn off the moment the TARDIS taken off without her.

"They knew it was alien because of the matching hieroglyphics on the Cube as well as NBE-1. President Hoover had the dam built around it. Four football fields thick of concrete; a perfect way of hiding its energy from being detected by anyone or any alien species on the outside." Banacheck continued.

"Yeah, except that the energy it was putting out before can still be tracked. Radiation lingers and you know, someone could have been on their way before the dam was built and considering recent events, it seems like they've finally arrived. Not to mention that you're storing it in the same facility where you have robot-alien Hitler on ice… in a desert. Couldn't you have built a facility up in the frozen north where he could stay on ice naturally?" Bree ranted.

"The cube was here." Simmons replied. Bree stared blankly at him for a moment.

"I… I've stumbled in to some strange alternate universe were the government is, and always has been, run by morons. Any one of the many young children I am forced to watch over at every family could figure this out, I mean come on!" she began, her voice rising until she was almost shouting. "You are allowed to have more than one government research facility! You'd think the government would want to keep it citizens safe and would leave the potential threat in the frozen wasteland where no one lives so that if it ever escaped there would be fewer casualties!"

"She has a point." Keller stated. There was an awkward silence as Bree breathed deeply and rubbed her temples in an effort to calm herself down.

"Calm down, calm down. It's still not as bad as Torchwood One. Not as bad as Torchwood One." She muttered.

"When this is all over you'll have to tell me about this Torchwood One." Keller told her.

"Well that depends entirely on whether we're both still here when this is over." She replied. No one seemed to want to say anything for a moment.

"So um," Maggie began awkwardly, "Back up. You said the dam hides the cube's energy. What kind exactly?" she asked Banacheck.

* * *

The agents led them to yet another room. This one was made out of metal and had a door that would fit right in at a bank vault with a steel and glass box in the center.

"Please step inside. They have to lock us in." Banachek instructed. That wasn't really something anyone had wanted to hear, especially with the claw marks on the metal wall.

"So, has anyone died in here?" Bree asked. "'Cause if they have then I'd really like to be on the other side of the door right now."

"No deaths." Simmons replied. "Just a maiming or two, but we've improved safety measures since then."

"Right. I feel so comforted right now." Bree deadpanned as she moved as far away from the glass box as she could.

"Anyone have any mechanical devices? Blackberry? Key alarm? Cellphone?" Simmons questioned. Bree crossed her arms. She had a cellphone and a perception filter and she wasn't giving either up.

"I got a phone." Glen stated, handing over his Nokia.

"Ooh, Nokias are real nasty," Simmons said eagerly as Banachek passed out safety goggles, "You got to respect the Japanese. They know the way of the samurai."

"Nokia's Finnish, so you're thinking Vikings." Bree commented. Simmons scowled at her. She only smirked in response. She was starting to enjoy constantly correcting the man, if only because it upset him.

"We're able to take the cube radiation and funnel it into that box." Simmons stated after the cellphone had been placed in said box.

There was a flash of what could only be described as "blue lightning" inside the box, then the cellphone unfolded into a tiny cybertronian. It immediately began lashing out at its glass prison.

"Mean little sucker, huh?" Simmons commented.

"That thing is freaky!" Michaela exclaimed.

"Kind of like the itty-bitty. Energizer Bunny from hell, huh?" Simmons replied. The glass box began to crack.

"He's breaking the box." Simmons said needlessly. The "improved security measures" activated and electrocuted the tiny being within the box until it was reduced to smoldering remains.

"You didn't have to kill it." Bree stated as she took her goggles off."

"That thing was a monster-" Simmons began. Bree cut him off.

"A mistake, it had to be destroyed?" She glared as him. "You're worse than Cleaves."

Any questions that might have been coming were cut off by the distant sound of explosions followed by the lights flickering around them.

"They're here." Bree announced.

Banachek went to an intercom on the wall.

"Banachek. What's going on?" he asked.

"The NBE-1 hangar has lost power-" a static filled voice replied.

"What?!" Banachek exclaimed.

"-And the back-up generator is just not going to cut it…" the voice continued.

"Well this day just keeps moving up the list." Bree muttered.

"Do you have an arms room?" Lennox asked.

* * *

As the soldiers rushed around the arms room Bree quickly ran through her options. She could offer up her own supply of weapons and ammo. Of course her weapons weren't military grade and wouldn't be of much use against Cybertronians. She could run down to where Megatron was an try to refreeze him. But that would most likely end with her dead. She frowned.

"Forty millimeter sabot rounds on that table!" Simmons shouted.

"That's good. Get all the ammo you got. Everything you can carry. Bring it." Lennox ordered.

Pack mule. Should could do that, but first she would have to empty her inventory. All movement in the room stopped when everything Bree had been carrying in her inventory suddenly appeared out of thin air. Everyone stared.

"Space within space. Question it later. I can carry up to fifty without the weight bothering me at all. Prioritize." Bree explained quickly. Lennox glanced over what had materialized.

"Take all the medical supplies back." He ordered. "What's this stuff?" he asked. Bree looked where he was pointing as people began handing her things.

"Uh, Shimmer, Lockpick, and some odds and ends I was going to try and build a sonic screwdriver with. All alien. None of it useful right now." Bree replied.

"You got to take me to my car. You have to take me to my car. He's gonna know what to do with the Cube." Sam said to Simmons.

"Your car? It's confiscated." Simmons replied.

"Then un-confiscate it." Sam answered.

"We do not know what will happen if we let it near this thing!" the agent exclaimed.

"You don't know." Sam corrected.

"Maybe you know, but I don't know." Simmons responded.

"You just wanna sit here and wait and see what happens?" Sam argued.

"I have people's lives at stake here, young man." Simmons growled.

"Take him to his car!" Lennox shouted.

There was a brief struggle and Simmons ended up with a gun pointed at his chest.

"Drop your weapon, soldier. There's an alien war going on and you're going to shoot me?" Simmons asked.

"You know, we didn't ask to be here." Lennox replied.

I'm ordering you under S-Seven executive jurisdiction." Simmons said.

"S-Seven don't exist." Epps stated.

"Right. And we don't take orders from people that don't exist." Lennox continued.

"I'm going to count to five. Okay." Simmons stated.

"Well, I'm going to count to three." Lennoox responded.

"Simmons." Keller interject.

"Yes sir?" Simmons replied.

"I'd do what he says. Losing's really not an option for these guys." Keller continued.

"All right. Okay. Hey, you want to lay the fate of the world on the kid's Camaro? That's cool." Simmons said.

As they left Bree managed to grab some of her stuff and put it put in her mostly full inventory.

Line line line

The hallway echoed with a sound that seemed to be a cross between a dial up internet connection and pained screeching echoing from the bowls of hell. The worst part was discovering that the sound was coming from Bumblebee.

The yellow Autobot was restrained against a large metal slab and was being hosed down with either Freon or liquid nitrogen.

"No, no! Stop! You got to stop! Stop! Stop! Stop!" Sam pleaded.

"No, no, stop, stop, stop!" Banacheck echoed. "Let him go! Let him go!"

Everyone stopped what they were doing and backed away. Bumblebee got up and pointed his weapons at them.

"Are you okay?" Sam asked. Indistinct whirrs and clicks were the only reply.

"Listen to me. The Cube is here and the Decepticons are coming." Sam told Bumblebee. The Camaro was still waving his guns around.

"No, no, don't worry about them. They're okay. Right? They're not gonna hurt you." Sam assured Bumblebee before turning toward the S-seven scientists and agents.

"Just back up a little bit. He's friendly. He's fine." He said. He turned back to Bumblebee.

"Okay, come on. Put the guns down. They're not gonna hurt you. Here, come with me. I'm gonna take you to the All Spark." He said.

* * *

Sam led Bumblebee to the Allspark. The cybertronian somehow interacted with the cube and got it to collapse in on itself until it could fit in one hand. One cybertronian hand that is, a human would have to grip it with both hands.

"Message from Starfleet, Captain…Let's get to it." The mish-mash of audio clips came out of Bumblebee's speakers.

"He's right. We stay here, we're screwed with Megatron in the other hangar. Mission City is 22 miles away. We're going to sneak that Cube out of here and we're going hide it somewhere in the city." Lennox stated.

"And get a bunch of innocent people killed." Bree added. "Brilliant plan."

"You got a better plan?" Epps asked.

"Go shoot Megatron in the face before he finishes defrosting." Bree suggested. "Or destroy the cube."

Bumblebee made a distressed noise.

"You can't do that! They need it to rebuild their civilization!" Sam exclaimed.

"I'm a little more worried about protecting ours." Bree growled.

"They could react violently if we destroyed it." Lennox pointed out, effectively shooting down Bree's idea. "As for your other idea, we don't know how much time we have until that thing is able to shoot back."

"Fine, whatever. We'll go with your plan." Bree muttered.

"Good." Lennox replied. "But we can't make a stand without the air force."

"This place must have some kind of radio link!" Keller exclaimed.

"Yes." Simmons replied.

"Shortwave, CB?" Keller asked.

"Right, Yes." Simmons answered.

"Sir, you got to figure out some way to get word out to them. Let's move!" Lennox declared.

* * *

It must have been the strangest convoy anyone had seen, made even stranger when they met up with the other Autobots on the way and they fell in line. Shiny civilian cars and a Semi mixed in with military vehicles. Bree was right where she didn't want to be, crammed Bumblebee's back seat.

"Hey, uh, Felicity," Sam began.

"What?" Bree asked crossly.

"Well I was wondering if you could put the Allspark in that, uh, "space within space" you have?" Sam questioned. "You know, to keep the Decepticons from finding it until we find a better place to put it."

Bree glared at him for a moment.

"Hand it over and I'll see what I can do." She muttered.

Sam handed the cube to her. Bree regretted it the moment the Allspark was in her hands. It felt like energy surging up her arms, shoving her magic out of the way and heading straight for her reserves. She tossed it back to Sam.

"Not going to work." She muttered as Sam fumbled with the cube.

"Why not?" Michaela asked.

"That thing is concentrated energy." Bree replied.

"So?" Michaela asked.

Bree frowned, trying to think of a way to explain without giving away too much. That was when the Decepticons attacked.

Optimus broke off to engage while the rest of the convoy kept going.

* * *

People gawked when the strange convoy pulled into the city. They stopped and Lennox went and raided a nearby electronics store for some shortwave radios.

"Wait. What am I supposed to do with these?" Epps asked when Lennox shoved the radios into his hands.

"Well, use them! It's all we got!" Lennox exclaimed.

"This is like RadioShack dinosaur radios or something, man." Epps complained. "I'm only gonna get twenty or thirty miles out of these things."

"Are there any aircraft circling the city?" Lennox asked. The distinctive roar of a jet engine cut through the air.

"F-22 at 12:00!" Epps exclaimed.

"All right, I want planes for air cover and get Black Hawks on station to extract that Cube. You got it?" Lennox told him.

"Air Force has arrived! Pop smoke!" Lennox shouted everyone else. Green smoke filled the air as the order was followed.

"Raptor, Raptor, do you copy? We have you visual. Green smoke is the mark. Provide air cover and vector Black Hawks for extraction!" Epps yelled into the radio.

Ironhide transformed. "It's Starscream!" he shouted. That wasn't good.

"Please tell me you copy." Epps begged the radio.

"Get down! Get down! Get down!" Bree shouted, grabbing Sam and Michaela and ducking behind one of the military vehicles.

Ironhide and Bumblebee lifted up a trailer to provide cover for the humans. The trailer exploded and for a brief moment it seemed like everything else had exploded as well. There was smoke and flames and debris. Being so close to an explosion, Bree was naturally a bit dazed. She slowly sat up and shook her head to clear the ringing from her ears. It didn't help.

Looking around she saw that everyone was okay, more or less. Bumblebee's legs from the knee down were gone, but Bree figured that probably wasn't as big of an issue for a Cybertronian as it would be for a human, replaceable parts and all that. Sam didn't seem to share her sentiment and was panicking and calling for Ratchet.

Bree realized that her hat was falling off and adjusted it.

"What the hell was that!" Lennox exclaimed.

"The enemy can transform into any vehicle!" Bree shouted at him. The "you moron" wasn't said, but it was implied by her glare.

"So they're impersonating us now?" Lennox asked. Bree shrugged.

"Military vehicles are badass." She replied just as a tank started rumbling down the street.

It was chaos. Explosions, gunfire, people screaming and running. It was war. Bree had no idea what to do. She was trained to survive and every instinct screamed at her to run. Indecision had practically paralyzed her.

"It's Megatron! Retreat! Move! Fall back!" Jazz shouted, snapping Bree out of it.

"Fall back." Lennox echoed. While everyone was moving away from the Decepticon leader Jazz moved forward to provide a distraction.

Once a somewhat safe distance away Bree turned and looked back. Jazz and Megatron were on top of a building. Bree had no idea what either alien was saying but it looked as if Jazz was taunting Megatron. The Decepticon leader didn't take kindly to this and picked the smaller Cybertronian up and moved to tear him in half. Bree wanted to look away, she really did, but then a column of water shot up from street level and slammed into Megatron, freezing when it made contact.

Megatron roared in outrage and dropped Jazz. The Autobot plummeted several stories and hit the ground. Bree stared in disbelief. It barely registered when someone shoved a piece of paper and ran off. She blinked and looked at the paper. There were two words next to a crudely drawn picture of an hourglass in a circle. The two words were: One turn.

Something clicked for Bree and she dropped the note. She dumped everything she was carrying for the soldiers near one of their vehicles and ducked into an alley and pulled out her time turner. She put it around her neck and turned it one time. Everything ran backward, like a high speed rewind. When it stopped there were no signs of the Autobots or Decepticons. Everything was peaceful, normal. And it would stay that way for about an hour… now what?

Bree pulled out the list of people who owed and honed in on the address of the debtor that lived in mission city. His place a business was closer. Bree ran back to the electronics shop Lennox had gotten the radios from, or where he would get them anyway. The shop specialized in vintage electronics and mostly catered to collectors. At least it did in the front.

"Jimmy!" Bree exclaimed when she burst into the shop. The man behind the counter started. He was thin and nerdy looking with freckled skin and thick glasses.

"That's not my name. It's-" Jimmy began to protest.

"Don't care." Bree interjected as she flipped the open sign to closed. "Back room. Now."

"What! Why!" Jimmy exclaimed.

"Short version. You owe Lisa Smith. I collect debts for Lisa Smith. Therefore, you owe me." Bree explained quickly.

"Do you have any proof?" Jimmy asked.

"I have a list of people who owe and a gun." Bree replied, showing off both items. "If I can't convince you I will shoot you."

"Okay, okay. I believe you." Jimmy said. Under his breathe he added "Only Lisa would hire someone this crazy."

"What was that?" Bree snapped.

"Nothing!" Jimmy answered quickly.

"Good." Bree responded, surveying the cases. She spotted the radios she remembered Lennox grabbing.

"Take those out and set them on the counter." She ordered.

"Why?" Jimmy questioned.

"Just do it!" Bree growled. Jimmy complied, grumbling the whole time.

"Now what?" he questioned once the radios were on the counter.

"Back room." Bree replied. Jimmy unlocked the door to the back. Bree immediately rushed in and began picking through objects.

"Useless, useless, fake, useless, have one of those, don't know what that is, needs fixing." She muttered.

"Be careful!" Jimmy protested.

"This whole place is going to be a warzone in less than an hour, there's no time for careful." Bree snapped.

"What are you talking about?" Jimmy questioned.

"Aliens." Bree replied. "Get me a piece of paper and a pen." Jimmy just stood there.

"Now!" Bree snapped. Jimmy rushed back to the front room.

"Psychic paper! That'll help, eventually." Bree exclaimed tucking the paper away. Jimmy came back.

"How did you get a batarang?" Bree asked as she wrote.

"Batman leaves those things everywhere." Jimmy replied.

"Okay! Jimmy grab something valuable and easy to carry because I'm not sure if you're shop will survive what's coming, and if it does it will probably be looted. Then go down three blocks that way, wait for the geyser to hit the robot, give this note to me and run." Bree instructed. She handed the note to Jimmy and went back to sorting through objects.

"Why?" Jimmy asked.

"All of reality depends on you doing this Jimmy. You need to go wait for the geyser. You need to wait, give me the note, then run. No matter what happens before the geyser you can't run, you'll be fine, but you need to wait." Bree answered.

"Okay." Jimmy said.

"Go Jimmy, we have less than an hour!" Bree shouted. Jimmy ran.

"Doesn't this guy have any weapons!" Bree exclaimed as she continued her search. "I might be able to build a couple of sonic devices hold them against each other and hope the feedback is enough to knock out a Decepticon… if I hand a month, didn't need to sleep, and could live off an I.V. of Mountain Dew!"

She took some parts to tinker with anyway. She really wanted to make her own sonic screwdriver. After a few minutes she gave up and left the shop and headed for the building Megatron and Jazz would end up on. Along the way she activated her perception filter and arrived at a fire hydrant across the street from the building just as the convoy drove by.

She waited for events to play out until the moment she was needed. When Megatron grabbed Jazz she blasted the hydrant, sending water straight up. She directed the water towards Megatron and froze it once it hit. She quickly froze the geyser to cap off the water pressure as Megatron turned to face whatever had attacked him. He snarled when he couldn't find anything and moved on go after the Allspark.

Bree moved toward Jazz. The silver Autobot was damaged rather extensively from the fall and from Megatron begging to tear him in two. Bree deactivated her perception filter.

"Jazz?" she said as she got close to the downed Autobot.

"Felicity?" he questioned weakly. Bree hesitated for a moment.

"Bree." She said finally.

"What?" Jazz asked.

"My name. It's Bree." She replied.

"I thought I told you to retreat." Jazz murmured.

"Yeah, well, I wasn't about to allow you to commit suicide by Megatron." Bree replied.

Jazz chuckled weakly before groaning in pain.

"I'll go find Rachet." Bree stated before running off, she didn't get very far before intense pain coursed through her body. She screamed.

"Bree!" Jazz called out while trying and failing to sit up. He couldn't even see what was happened.

The pain stopped and Bree realized what had happened. She had completely forgotten about the Death Eaters. She only had a moment to berate herself before she was knocked out.


	11. What isn't there

**Two crossovers. One is purposefully vague and the other is quite obivous.**

* * *

Bree woke up in the dark. She was on her side, her hands bound behind her back. The floor was metal. There were no windows and only smallest sliver creeping in from under the door. It wasn't enough to tell if it was artificial or natural light and thus, no way of telling what time it was, or how long she had been out for.

The room was moving. Back and forth, up and down, side to side. A ship then, nothing else would move like that. No portholes meat she was probably below the waterline. Unless she wasn't. She didn't know much about ships in general and knew even less about the one she was on. Like the size, who it belonged to, what part of the ocean it was in, or how many people were on board.

It wasn't a god situation. And the worst part was, her hat was missing. It was her favorite hat. She and that hat had some good years together and she was going to miss it. Bree wriggled around on the floor until she was sitting up, which is rather hard to do with your hands behind your back.

A few minutes later the door was suddenly flung open and Bree squinted at the sudden intrusion of light. Before her eyes had time to adjust someone grabbed her and slammed her against the nearest wall. Blinking spots out of her eyes Bree got a look at who had grabbed her. It was a large, dark skinned, slightly feral looking man.

"Well look who finally decided to wake up." He taunted. "You've given us a lot of trouble, what do you have to say for yourself?"

Bree muttered something that the man, even though he was probably a werewolf, couldn't hear.

"What was that?" he asked. He cried out in pain and doubled over clutching his groin, dropping Bree in process.

"I have a knife." Bree stated, holding up the bloodied knife in question. Her captors really shouldn't have given her time to free her hands.

"You're not hurting her too badly are you?" A woman asked. "We do need her alive." The woman was looking into the dark room from the other side of the doorway. She gasped in surprise when she suddenly found Bree holding a knife to her throat.

The woman raised her wand.

"I'll have cut your throat by the time you get the first syllable out."Bree growled. "Drop your wand and you'll get to keep your blood where it belongs."

The woman dropped her wand. Bree took a good look at her hostage. Brown hair, green eyes, and those features…

"What's your last name?" Bree asked.

"Grimsley." The woman replied.

Ben had come from a dark family, but he never mentioned his relatives.

"Okay then." Bree said. "Now tell me, where are we?"

"The Caribbean, I think. After we picked you up we took you to down south to the coast. Magical means of international travel are monitored so we hired some smugglers." The woman replied timidly.

"Any other Death Eaters on the ship?" Bree asked.

"One. He's on the bridge." The woman answered.

"Right then. In you go." Bree said, shoving the woman into the dark room. The werewolf was starting to get up.

"Stupefy." The werewolf collapsed back to the floor. Bree turned to the woman.

"And stupefy." The woman fell over. Bree went back into the hall and shut the door, locking it, before picking up the woman's wand and pocketing it. She stretched, working out the kinks in her muscles and joints.

"That's better." She muttered. She activated her perception filter and started walking, using the point me spell to find a way to get to the upper levels of the ship. She had to go up a couple levels before getting to the deck of the ship. It was pitch black out, clouds obscured the moon and the stars provided very little light.

Bree looked around until she found where the life jackets were kept. She stowed her perception filter in her inventory because she had no idea how it would react to water. As she put one of the orange life jackets on she heard shouting. Apparently the crew had discovered that she had escaped.

She rushed over to the ship's railing and climbed over it. Staring down into the dark water, she hesitated for a moment. The shouting was getting closer.

Bree closed her eyes and jumped. "Geronimo!" she shouted. Cold water engulfed her before the life jacket yanked her back up to the surface.

She used aguamenti to propel herself away from the ship. Soon she was drifting alone in the sea. She decided that the best thing to do was to wait until morning. Even if she used the point me spell to find land it would be difficult to spot in the dark. She put her wand in one of her boots, not in one of the bigger on the inside pockets since she didn't want it to fill with sea water, just her boot.

She stared up at the stars as the waves rocked her. A star flickered out.

"Now would be a really great time for a blue police box to appear rescue me!" Bree shouted at the sky. She listened for the tell-tale sound of the TARDIS. The night remained quiet save for the sound of the waves.

"Fine! Be that way!" Bree yelled. She pouted and closed her eyes. Something bumped into her legs.

* * *

"Some sailors went to sea, sea, sea, to see what they could, see, see, see. But all that they could see, see, see, was the bottom of the deep blue sea, sea, sea." Bree sang weakly. She hadn't slept well thanks to That Annoying Dolphin and the occasional wave that would splash her face.

T.A.D. had gotten its name by being annoying and mostly useless. It had alternated between trying to get Bree to play with it and making sure she was alive when she fell asleep. The only reason she tolerated T.A.D. was because it kept That Creepy Shark away.

That Creepy Shark would circle around Bree, gradually coming in closer and closer until T.A.D. drove it away. That Creepy Shark always came back and the pattern would begin again.

By the time the sun was up both T.A.D. and That Creepy Shark were gone. Bree assumed that T.A.D. had gone off to eat some fish and That Creepy Shark had gone to do whatever sharks do when they're not impersonating Jaws.

Bree sighed. Using the point me spell to find land wasn't going well since she had to alternate using her wand as her "compass" and her "engine." Since she couldn't kept track of her destination while she was moving she kept drifting off course thanks to the wind and waves.

Her stomach rumbled. Her throat felt like sandpaper. She had tried using aguamenti to quench her thirst and had nearly drowned herself

"This was not a very well thought out plan." She muttered. She looked up at the sky. The sun had been beating down on her all day and was now sinking beneath the horizon.

* * *

T.A.D. and That Creepy Shark had come back during the night and continued their ritual. Of course, it could have been a different creepy shark, or maybe a series of creepy sharks, but Bree preferred to think of it as one persistent shark rather than multiple sharks because frankly one shark was less scary than many sharks. It helped that Bree couldn't see the shark(s) all that well in the dark water so she couldn't tell what kind(s) of shark(s) it/they was/were.

The next morning Bree was left alone again. Just a girl and the endless expanse of the sea. She was hungry, thirsty, and sunburned. She really should have taken the time to come up with a better plan, but she had been caught up in the "RunrunDeathEatersGetaway" and had fled. Death at sea was preferable to then what she would have faced at the hands of the Death Eaters.

The sun set again. Bree didn't mind when T.A.D. and That Creepy Shark came back. She looked up at the stars.

"Tick… tock… goes the clock." Bree began slowly. "And what now shall we play? Tick tock goes the clock… Now summers gone away."

Bree's voice could barely be heard above the sound of the waves.

"Tick tock goes the clock, and pain became her price…" She chuckled weakly and hummed the rest of the tune as her eyes slide shut.

* * *

Bree woke up on her side, staring at a white crab. She blinked. The crab waved its claws at her and then scuttled across the sand and into the ocean. Bree blinked again. Sand?

"'Ey girlie!" someone called. Bree rolled over onto her back. A young dark skinned man knelt down next to her.

"Come on girlie, Mama be waitin' for ya." He said, helping her sit up. He put a bottle to her lips. Bree greedily drank the water.

"Not too fast dere girlie." The young man chuckled, taking the bottle away. "I be takin' ya to Mama now." He effortlessly picked Bree up and carried her down the beach. He walked past a small dock and down a well-worn trail through the jungle. They approached what could best be described as a shack on stilts.

The shack was on the bank of a river. Well actually it was in the river connected to the bank by the front deck and a wooden walkway.

The building was decorated with things that had drifted in with the tide. Life rings, fishing nets and lures, a long string of plastic and glass bottles, and buoys hung on the sides off the shack or from the railing around the deck.

Inside the shack glass bottles filled with various pickled animals, animal parts, and other things hung from the rafters.

A dark skinned young woman with her hair done up in a messy bun.

"Ey girl, I brought de girlie like Mama want." The young man announced.

"Set 'er down boy." Girl ordered. Boy set Bree onto her feet. She stumbled slightly but Girl helped steady her.

"Let's getcha cleaned up girlie." Girl said, leading Bree to another room.

"Get 'er some food Boy." Girl called over her shoulder.

Line line line

Girl helped Bree strip out of her wet clothes and got a bucket of water and a cloth to wash the salt off of Bree's skin. Bree was somewhat embarrassed but recognized that she wasn't really in the best state to be able to take care of herself.

"So I take it you and Boy don't use your real names." Bree said as Girl washed her back. Girl chuckled.

"No, dere's magic inna name. To know someone's name is to 'ave a power over dem." She explained. "But ya knew dat dincha girlie?"

"Boy said that your mom was waiting for me." Bree stated.

"Now none of dat now. You be callin' 'er Mama jus' like everyone else." Girl replied.

"Okay, but is she waiting for me?" Bree aked.

"Ya. Mama know you be comin' so she send boy out to getcha." Girl answered.

"But how did she know?" Bree questioned.

"Dat be fer you an Mama to talk 'bout." Girl responded.

Once Bree was cleaned up girl rubbed some kind of paste into her skin to treat her sunburns then helped her change into a white cotton dress and led her out into the main room. Boy had set a bowl of soup out on a table along with some fruit. After helping her sit down, Girl went to wash Bree's clothes.

Bree didn't know what to think. The whole situation was very strange. The island itself seemed completely untouched by man except for the dock and the shack. There was a distinct lack modern items and the clothing seemed to be from a different era. It just had a completely different style and feel then the mass produced item Bree was used to. If it weren't for the modern items that decorated the building Bree might have thought she had gone through some sort of time warp

And then there was Boy, Girl, and the mysterious Mama. Something made her trust them and she had no idea why.

* * *

Mama looked to be around Lisa's age. Her hair was done up in dreadlock, her dress was somewhat tattered and just as outdated as what her children wore and around her neck was a heart shaped crab locket.

"I've bin waitin' for ya girlie." Mama told Bree.

"So I've heard." Bree replied. "But how did you know I was coming?"

"Da sea send ya 'ere and it tell me to wait." Mama explained.

"The sea sent me here?" Bree asked incredulously.

Mama nodded. "Dat's right." She said.

"Okay… Why?" Bree questioned.

"It could not allow sometin' so like itself to die." Mama replied. Bree was even more confused than before.

"I… What?" she said.

"Girlie, ya are harsh, untamable, and subjec' to your wims. One moment calm and placid, the next, angry and unforgivin'." Mama told her.

"How- how could you possibly know that?" Bree asked.

"Many 'ave 'erd 'bout de girl dat wanders unafraid into to unknown, 'bout de girl dat gave up a piece of 'erself to protect wat's important. De've 'erd 'bout the girl knows too much." Mama answered. "De've 'erd 'bout ya girlie."

"How?" Bree questioned in shock. Mama chuckled.

"Ya really need to ask dat?" she asked. "Ya cause chaos wherever ya go, ya wandered tru a thin place and back out without gettin' 'urt. Ya got noticed."

Bree frowned and was quiet for a long moment.

"The ones who noticed," she began. "Were they human?" Mama grinned.

"Clever girlie." She replied. "Humans only see wat de want to see, even dem magi can be blind."

"So then, are you human?" Bree inquired.

"Clever, clever girlie. Ya 'ave a great destiny waitin' for ya." Mama responded. It didn't answer Bree's question, but she figured there was no point in pushing it.

"I don't really believe in destiny." Bree stated. "Some preordained future, an inevitable outcome? Not happening. After all, time can be rewritten."

Mama chuckled again.

"Clever, clever girlie." She repeated.

* * *

Mama gave Bree a red bandana to cover her stiches with. Bree was able to relax on the island. The weather was warm and sunny with a gentle breeze. She lied down in the shade of a palm tree and relaxed before reaching out with her natural energy. A desolate island was the perfect place to partice bush magic.

The sand felt different than what she was used to. Tiny little grains kept together by gravity and easily pushed apart, except where it was held together by the roots of plants. Sand, sand, sand, tiny shellfish, sand, sand, microorganisms living in the sand, sand, sand, sand, thing. The thing was… gray, not that Bree could see it. It just felt kind of gray and big, like a whale. A whale made out of energy, a great big gray energy whale.

The whale seemed mildly amused by Bree's presence. It prodded at her and then grabbed her and pulled her down into the midst of the gray energy. Down into the very center of it, until she was completely surrounded by the gray. It felt peaceful. Then she was pushed down out of the gray and toward the river of light.

It was so beautiful. Even though see couldn't really see it she could still feel the life within it the power. It was almost addictive. Maybe that's why the one eyed man had warned her away from it. To prevent her from becoming addicted to the power that radiated from the river, from being tempted into the river and overdosing on it.

The one eyed man wasn't here this time and she could get as close as she wanted, but… What the river of light was like the sun? Get to close and you'll burn right up. And why did was she so interested in the river anyway? It's not like she had accomplished anything useful by gawking at it. She had gotten the meditation and connecting with nature parts of push magic down pretty well, but she kept using it to go down deep into the planet. She was on the surface of the planet. She needed to influence the surface. She needed to spread out instead of down. Maybe go up. Up into the trees and the sky and space. What would space feel like? What about the stars? The TARRDIS? Would it be like the river of light.

No, no, no. Back to earth. The plants, the animals, the wind and water. She needed to try to influence them. It would help, but it would be hard, especially since the final goal was to be able to use bush magic while moving.

Bree pulled away from the river went back up. The whale grabbed her again, forcing her up, up, up, up. She came back to herself quickly. Too quickly.

"Ow, ow, ow." She moaned, clutching her head and rolling onto her side. She felt pressure in her head like something had been crammed into her skull and was trying to burst back out.

"Came back to fast, eh girlie?"

Bree opened one of her eyes. Boy was looking down at her, amused.

"The whale pushed me." Bree growled. Boy looked confused for a moment before her burst out laughing.

"Good one girlie. Suits 'im." He said. "Ya lucky ya didn' 'ave an aneurysm tryin' dat on ya own."

Bree muttered something unintelligible at him.

"Come on and rest girlie. Ya won' get anytin' done like dat." He said, helping her up.

She sighed.

* * *

The next day Bree tried bush magic again. She stayed on the surface, pushing the sand into simple patterns. She practiced for hours and it slowly got easier.

"Girlie, hey girlie." Bree came back to herself, slowly this time. Girl was standing over her.

"Come on girlie. Mama wants to see ya." Girl told her.

* * *

Back at the shack Mama took the stiches out of Bree's head as they sat at the table in the main room. Bree kept the red bandana to cover the scar that was left behind.

"It's time for ya to go girlie." Mama stated. "Boy'll take ya to de next island."

"Okay." Bree replied. "But can I ask why?"

"Ya can't stay in any one place for to long girlie." Mama replied. "Ya still 'ave to pay de price and if ya don' satisfy it, it will come afta ya. If dat magic come to de island… bad tings will 'appen. Dis island 'as a life of its own. It don' like anyone uninvited."

Girl came into the room carrying multiple jars and bottles. She set them down on the table"

"I brought de medicines Mama." She said.

"Tank ya Girl." Mama replied as she picked up one of the jars and proceeded to explain what the medicine inside was for before giving it to Bree. The act was repeated until they had gone through every jar and bottle.

Line line line

Boy lead Bree out to the dock and helped her into a dinghy. He took her to a fishing village on the next island. Bree set out to find a way to the next island as the sun set. She turned and looked back for a moment. The island, which should have been visible in the distance, and the dinghy had both vanished. Bree stared for a moment and then walked away.

Line line line

After a day or so of going from island to island, sometimes as a cat, Bree ended up in Columbia.

"Wow, Aunt Lisa knows a lot of drug traffickers." Bree muttered as she inspected her list. She had narrowed it down to whoever would react the most favorably to her presence, but it was still quite a few.

She was in a rural area surrounded by jungle. It had been difficult getting there. It had taken a lot of hitchhiking and paying people to take her upriver, but she was finally at her destination, a town with the rainforest on all sides. But that had only been part one of her mission, part two was finding the man who owed Lisa, and the only way to do that in this town was by knocking on doors. No one would talk to he and she was getting frustrated and she was pretty sure there was something in the trees, following her.

She frowned and stared at the forest. She was sure there was a shadow moving around

"I hear that you're looking for Luis Fernando." Someone said. Bree turned saw a small group of armed men.

"What of it?" Bree replied.

"Luis asked me to bring you to him." The youngest man in the group answered. Bree grinned.

"Well then lead the way." She responded.

Line line line

Luis was in his fifties and his face showed every day of his age. He sat on the front porch of a small house, smoking a cigar.

"Why have you, a young American woman, come in search of me?" he asked coldly.

"I'm Lisa Smith's niece." Bree replied. Luis's whole demeanor changed in almost an instant.

"Why didn't you say so?" he exclaimed, smiling broadly and putting an arm around Bree. "Welcome, welcome. I've heard so much about you."

"Uh, sir, how do we know she is who she says she is?" one of the men interjected.

"Ah, right, right." Luis agreed, removing his am from Bree's shoulders. "Do you have any proof?"

"Other than the fact the only someone completely suicidal would make that claim?" Bree inquired rhetorically. "There's this." She had him something. He looked it over and gave it back after about a minute.

"This is definitely the niece of Lisa Smith." He declared. Bree grinned and tucked away the psychic paper she had taken from Jimmy.

"Now what can I do for you?" Luis asked.

"I need some help getting to Puerto Ayora." Bree answered.

"That's it?" Luis asked, surprised. "No, no, no. Your Aunt saved my life. You'll stay at my house in Bogota for a few days. We'll have a big dinner and you can tell me how Lisa's doing."

"Uh, okay." Bree replied.

Luis took her to a rural airfield and Bree completely ignored any drugs that may or may not have been there as she boarded the small plane.

* * *

Bree stayed in the guest room at Luis's house for the next few days. He treated her with the utmost hospitality, partly because she was related to the scariest woman on the planet and partly because he owed his life to scariest woman on the planet.

Over the nexr few days Bree was treated to multiple Columbian foods. Fried green plantains, chicken and potato stew, flan, some kind of cheese bread, corn cakes, potatoes in a cheese sauce seasoned with onions and tomatoes, red beans, coconut rice, rice with raisins and Coca Cola, roasted Andean potatoes, various salsas, chicken in coconut sauce, grill-roasted beef tenderloin, savory beef stew and orange layer cake. Bree liked some of the foods better than others, but was still delighted to have so much food available. Three days at sea makes you really appreciate food.

One day Bree woke up just knowing it was going to be a bad day. Luis had woken her up early in the morning, looking nervous. Two men with big guns were standing in the doorway. That was the first sign that her day was going decidedly downhill.

Bree sighed and threw off the covers.

"What the hell Luis?" she asked as she put on her bandanna having slept in her clothes, boots included.

"I'm very sorry and I know your aunt will be very unhappy about this, but she's not here threatening my family right now." Luis replied.

"I understand Luis, but my Aunt's going to blackmail you now." Bree replied. She turned to the two men in the doorway.

"So, what do you want?" she questioned.

"Boss wants us to take you to him." One of the men replied.

"Oh so it's a kidnapping then." Bree stated. "I just got kidnapped like a week ago, could you come back in a month or something?"

"No." the man replied.

"Fine, fine. Let's go." Bree muttered.

* * *

The men blindfolded Bree and tied her hands behind her back and put her in the back seat of a truck and drove around for a while. They finally stopped and pulled her out of the truck. When they finally removed the blindfold Bree saw that she was in a warehouse.

In front of her was a huge man. He was wearing a Mexican wrestler's mask and had a tube coming out the back of her neck. It was Bane, as in the Batman villain _Bane_. Why was Bane in Colombia of all places? ...Oh right, the drug trade. Oka, but what did Bane want with her.

"Well. This is new." Bree stated, blinking stupidly. She wasn't quite able to grasp the absurdity of her situation. "I know what the last group wanted when the kidnapped me, but what do you want with me?"

Bane grinned.

"Oh it's not about you." He said. "Your Aunt however has quite a bit of money, and I bet she'd be willing to give it up for her heir."

"So ransom then." Bree replied. "That's not going to work. Lisa's not going to give you any money for me."

"I've heard how much Lisa cares about you. She'll give me the money." Bane responded.

"No, she'll give you a nice shiny bullet to the head once she finds out you've kidnapped me. If you hurt me, she'll kill everyone you've ever cared about and then kill you, and if you kill me she will go after you until you're a shattered shell of a man on your knees begging for death and then she'll make sure that you live like that for as long as possible." Bree explained. "She earned the title "Scariest Woman on the Planet" because she ruins lives and enjoys it. I'm her heir because I exhibit the same qualities, and you kidnapped me, but whatever, give me three meals a day, and a place to sleep and I won't kick up a fuss."

"What?" one of Bane's henchmen asked, confused.

"Well I really don't have anywhere else to be right now, and so far you've treated me better than the last group that kidnapped me, so, yeah, I can hang out for a while, just don't try to smack me around or anything and I'll cooperate." Bree answered. "I missed breakfast, so if you could get me some of that cheese bread, that'd be fantastic."

Bane stared at her. "You're not quite all there, are you?" he asked. Bree shrugged.

"I'm sane…ish." She answered.

* * *

The room they put her in was rather small with a cot and an attached bathroom. The bathroom was tiny and consisted of a toilet, a sink, a shower, and no door. The walls in both rooms were marked up. There tally marks in some place and in others it looked like someone had been bashing something against the wall. It probably wasn't the first time someone and been held in that room. Maybe they had been kidnapped for ransom like Bree had been, or had been held hostage to blackmail someone, or maybe they had had information Bane wanted.

Bane's henchmen didn't want to go near the room, but someone needed to guard it. The henchmen drew straws to choose who would guard the door. The straw was drawn by one of the beefiest henchmen. He wasn't happy, but he had to do or Bane might punch his face in. It wasn't the room itself that bothered the henchmen, it was what they had put inside the room that unnerved them.

Bree wasn't like anyone they had ever held captive before. The others had all been terrified by their situation and by the fact that they might be killed. Bree didn't seem to care and, after eating the cheese bread she had demanded, had started singing her favorite parts of her favorite songs from her favorite play in no particular order while waltzing with the air.

"For what's the sound of the world out there? What, Mr. Todd? What, Mr. Todd? What is that sound? Those crunching noises pervading the air! Yes, Mr. Todd! Yes, Mr. Todd! Yes, all around! It's man devouring man, my dear! And then who are we to deny it in here?" Bree laughed as she twirled.

"Swing your razor wide! Sweeney, hold it to the skies. Freely flows the blood of those who moralize.

There's a hole in the world like a great black pit and the vermin of the world inhabit it. and its morals aren't worth what a pin can spit and it goes by the name of London... At the top of the hole sit the privileged few making mock of the vermin in the lower zoo turning beauty to filth and greed... But not for long...

The history of the world, my sweet - Oh, Mr. Todd, ooh, Mr. Todd, what does it tell? Is who gets eaten, and who gets to eat! And, Mr. Todd, too, Mr. Todd, who gets to sell! But fortunately, it's also clear that everybody goes down well with a beer!

They all deserve to die. Tell you why, Mrs. Lovett, tell you why. Because in all of the whole human race Mrs. Lovett, there are two kinds of men and only two. There's the one staying put in his proper place and the one with his foot in the other one's face. Look at me, Mrs Lovett, look at you.

He kept a shop in London town. Of fancy clients and good renown and what if none of their souls were saved they went to their maker impeccably shaved.

No, we all deserve to die. Tell you why, Mrs. Lovett, tell you why. Because the lives of the wicked should be made brief. For the rest of us death will be a relief. We all deserve to die.

The history of the world, my love - Save a lot of graves, do a lot of relatives favors! Is those below serving those up above! Everybody shaves, so there should be plenty of flavors! How gratifying for once to know that those above will serve those down below! Have charity towards the world, my pet! Yes, yes, I know, my love! We'll take the customers that we can get! High-born and low, my love! We'll not discriminate great from small! No, we'll serve anyone, Meaning anyone, and to anyone at all!" Bree started cackling madly and the henchman outside the door knew that it was only a matter of time before she started singing again.

Bree eventually got tired of Sweeny Todd and started combining other songs to disturbing effect in an apparent attempt to drive her captors insane.

"Don't worry be happy I'm not always like this, it's something I've become. A terrible weakness in my nature, in my blood. I keep it caged but I can't control it. So stay away from me. The beast is ugly. I feel the rage and I just can't hold it. Would you mind if I killed you? Would you mind if I tried to?" Bree's singing just got worse from there as far as the henchmen were concerned.

Line line line

Bree was lounging in the cot, eating a plate of cheese bread she'd been given so that she'd shut up for a while when one of the henchmen reluctantly walked in.

"Boss says we need proof we have you, so I need you to hold this paper while I take your picture." He said, handing Bree a newspaper. Bree sat up, took the paper, and posed for the picture.

"Can you look less happy, this isn't a vacation photo." The henchman requested.

"Of course it isn't." Bree replied. "I look miserable in all my vacation photos." The henchman sighed and took the picture. He left the room muttering about crazies and Bree went back to her cheese bread.

The next day Bane stormed in.

"We contacted your Aunt and asked her for two million in exchange for your safe return." He stated.

"And?" she pushed.

"She made a counter offer. We give her two billion and she'll take you off our hands, then she hung up." Bane growled.

"Well, I am stuck here with nothing to do but think about all the ways you can break a man, body and soul." Bree replied. Her grin was entirely unnerving, even to a man like Bane since she had pointed teeth, catlike eyes, and claws, when she wasn't supposed to have any of those things and hadn't had them the day before.

"You're a meta human." Bane said. Bree blinked, suddenly looking perfectly human.

"No, not at all." She replied.

"Anyway…" Bane began. "I'm sure your aunt will change her mind after you're roughed up a bit." He moved to grab Bree but only grasped air since Bree was suddenly a cat. Bree darted between his legs, shifted into human form and pulled his venom tube free. Bane immediately lost a great deal of muscle mass and Bree knocked him down.

"Not going to try that again, are you?" she asked, pinning his head to the ground with her foot. Bane's response was muffled.

Bree stupefied him than went out into the hall. She quickly spotted a henchman.

"Hi there!" she greeted cheerily. "I just knocked out your boss. Until he wakes up I declare myself the new boss. I need you to bring me an office chair, ten rolls of duct tape, and a plate of pancakes. You have forty minutes."

* * *

Bane woke up in the evening, duct taped to a chair. Bree was smirking down at him.

"I did warn you, you know." She stated. "I set the terms and you violated them. It's not my fault I had to do this."

"You're insane." Bane growled.

"I have sociopathic tendencies. There's a difference." Bree replied. "You know, I've been looking into your operation here and I must say; you are very creative. Lacing cocaine with venom to make it more addictive? Genius! Especially since meth has become one of the most popular drugs out there, addictive, long lasting high, and anyone can make so long as they follow the directions, it's just pushing other drugs off the market. It really takes a creative genius to stay ahead of the game these days."

"I don't need you to explain what I already know." Bane snapped. Bree grinned, letting a bit of her animagus form bleed into her features.

"True, true, but you do need me to not set your warehouse on fire with you in it." She answered.

"What do you want?" Bane asked.

"How about the formula for venom?" Bree said. "Also, all your notes and the formula for any other compounds you may have developed… No wait, I already have all of that, you're henchmen were very cooperative once they saw your unconscious body. No, what I really want right now is to make you miserable, that way whenever anyone comes to you and suggests that kidnapping a member of my family might be a good way to make some money you can tell them all about this and say "No, it's not." Because nothing makes me hate more than someone threatening my family, and I like to have fun with the people I hate."

One of the henchmen came into the room.

"Boss I brought the cd player and the cd you wanted." He said.

"Yay!" Bree exclaimed. "I hope you like dubstep, because that's what you'll be listening to for the next couple of hours.

Suddenly one of the henchmen burst into the room.

"Boss! Our patrols found someone sneaking around outside, but they got away." he exclaimed.

"Well then find them." Bree replied.

"We're working on it, I just thought you should know." The henchman replied.

"Wait, you're calling her boss now!" Bane growled.

"Well sir," the henchman replied. "She does have you taped to a chair."

"You have guns, shoot her!" Bane yelled.

"We tried. She did something that made the fly out of our hands and then she threated to force us to dig a deep pit, fill it with snakes, and then have us jump into the pit if we tried to shoot her again. And her teeth were sharper and her eyes were like a snake's when she said it, now most of the men think she's some sort of demon or spirit." The henchman answered.

"My goal to become the most feared thing on the planet is going well." Bree commented. She was silent for a moment and then she grinned. "Hey Bane, before I leave you with the dubstep how about I tell you a story." She didn't give bane a chance to reply.

"Once upon a time there was a goblin, or a warrior, or a trickster. A nameless terrible thing soaked in the blood of a billion galaxies and nothing could hold it, or stop it, or reason with it. One day it would just drop out of the sky and tear down your world. One day while I was at school that thing dropped out of the sky and saved my life. And the truth is he has a lot of names. The madman with a blue box, the oncoming storm, the destroyer of worlds, but I just call him the Doctor." Bree's grin widened.

"And he's not as bad as the story makes him out to be. Not unless you're evil, and even if you are he'll give you a chance. Just one. He's clever and ruthless and he always defeats his enemies. I decided that I wanted to be like him, but I also wanted to be like my Aunt, then I said to myself "why not both." A Doctor, with a touch of corruption, and Bane, you're going to help me. You're going to live the rest of your life in fear of me." She explained.

* * *

**Something extra**

* * *

In the days after the battle at Mission City Agent Simmons had become increasingly frustrated. Sector Seven was in the process of being shut down and the strange teenage girl that refused to give her real name and knew more than she should have had disappeared. The only clues she'd left were her hat, what little information she'd revealed about herself, and her real name which she had revealed to one of the NBE's moments before she had vanished.

They had managed to use that little bit of information along with DNA from hair follicles on the hat to find her real name. Bree Louise Smith. Seventeen years old, half British half American. Moved to England with her parents at age eleven, parents moved back without her weeks before her seventeenth birthday. And that was all they could find. Any files that might contain useful information were classified either by a British agency known as Torchwood, or by an American one known as S.E.A.

Secretary of Defense Keller had been angered when he found out about another secret government organization. He was even angrier when a S.E.A. agent told him that the his security clearance wasn't high enough nor was he high enough in the chain of command to declassify the information since it was "a security and peacekeeping matter for multiple nations."

Across the pond, Torchwood refused to budge on the matter and wouldn't elaborate on any statement Bree had made about Canary Warf, Torchwood One, or the multiple aliens species that visited earth regularly. The man who Keller had talked to, who did not have an accent, had only said "that girl knows too much, talks too much too, she is cute though" before hanging up.

The most frustrating part of the whole ordeal, to Simmons at least, was the fact that not even the Autobots could hack into organizations' database. Jazz claimed that not even Soundwave would be able to hack into either database because the automated defenses and firewalls seemed to be combinations of several different technologies that really shouldn't work together but somehow managed to mesh together flawlessly.

Jazz was the most determined to find Bree. It didn't really make sense to some, he hadn't known her for very long, especially when you factor in the incredible long lives of cybertronians. But no one else had heard Bree scream. It had probably been the most tortured sound that human vocal cords are capable of producing. It had been a scream filled will agony and it made Jazz want to find her and save her. Plus he owed her since she was most likely the one responsible for the giant frozen geyser that had saved him from Megatron.

He couldn't really do much since Rachet was keeping him confined to an improvised med-bay since he had nearly been ripped in half. The fact that more Autobots were due to arrive soon had pushed the search for Bree down on everyone's list of priorities.


	12. Backtrack

**There was a Pirates of the Carribean character in the last chapter, just so you know.**

**X-overs for this chapter: Young Justice**

* * *

"I have a mysterious cooler! I have a mysterious cooler! And guess what's inside it!" Bree chanted as she pulled a wheeled cooler that was chained shut down the hall.

"I have a mysterious cooler! I have a mysterious cooler!" She opened the door to the room Bane was being kept in. "And guess what's inside it."

She pulled the cooler into the room and put it in front of Bane. Something was obviously trying to escape. Bree sat down on the cooler.

"I got bored after leaving you alone with the dubstep so I went out about six hours ago. I found this awesome market. Hagrid would love it. So would snake face, come to think of it… Anyway, I bought this thing." Bree patted the cooler and grinned. "When I got back one of the henchmen told that they caught the guy that was sneaking around outside so I figured I'd leave it with you for safe keeping."

Bree got up undid the chains in place before fleeing the room and slamming the door shut behind her.

* * *

Bree stared, and stared, and stared some more.

"Uh boss, are you alright?" one of the henchmen asked.

"Batman is going to punch me in the face." Bree muttered.

"What?" the henchman questioned.

"Batman. Is going. To punch me. In. The. Face." Bree repeated, turning to glare at the henchman. "You've kidnapped Batman's kid. Batman is going to come here and he is going to be furious." She growled.

"So we just use the kid for leverage." Another henchman suggested. Bree slowly turned to the man, catlike eyes wide and unblinking.

"You want to use Batman's kid for leverage." She stated in a voice devoid of any emotion.

"Yes?" the henchman replied uncertainly.

"Bane wanted to use me for leverage, and you remember how that worked out." Bree said.

The henchman cringed.

"Yeah. That was a terrible idea and you should feel terrible." Bree chided. She turned back to the captured sidekick who had been watching the conversation.

"You already got out of the cuffs, didn't you?" She asked.

"No." Robin replied just a bit too quickly. Bree sighed and rubbed her temples.

"I am foreseeing a lot of pain in my immediate future. That's how these things go for me. Really the only reason I stuck around after Bane nabbed me was for the convenient meat shields between me and the outside, but if Robin's here that means things are about to get exciting. Last time things got exciting for me I woke up on a smugglers ship as the cargo." She stated.

"So what are you going to do?" a henchman asked.

"I quit." Bree answered.

"You can't do that!" Another henchman protested.

"You guys only follow my orders because I scare you. Are you really going to stop me?" Bree asked. No one replied.

"That's what I thought." Bree stated. "Right, so, that's it then. This is no longer my problem. I don't know whose problem it is, but it's not mine. So have fun beating up the henchmen, Bane's down the hall duct taped to a chair and trapped in a room with a thing." She told Robin.

"Is that were the screaming is coming from?" he asked.

"Yeah, but it's a baby so it's not like it can do anything lethal, just extremely traumatizing and psychologically scarring. Hopefully that'll teach Bane not to abduct someone that came to Colombia to _escape _danger. Good luck getting the thing back in its cooler. Bye." And with that Bree turned at ran out of the warehouse.

* * *

There was something in the woods and it was watching Bree. It made it difficult for her to hotwire the truck she intended to steal since she had keep looking over her shoulder to make sure whatever was watching her wasn't about to attack. At first she had thought it was nothing, there were a lot of animals in the rainforest making noises that Bree wasn't familiar with but were probably commonplace in that area. That wasn't it.

Once someone has mastered their animagus form they tend to shift from human to animal form ignoring the in-between phases they had to master first, which is unfortunate since the in-between phases could be useful. Bree's animagus form was a cat. A Cheshire cat but that's not really important right now.

Cats have much better night vision than humans and have a larger field of view and a superior sense of smell. A human at the edge of a rainforest at dusk would benefit from these senses. Bree was smart enough to take advantage of this. She modified her eyes and nose. Her pupils became catlike and her nose flattened out a bit. There was a side effect of claws and pointed ears. The claws made it harder to deal with the wiring of the vehicle Bree had selected and the ears were pretty much useless since the big advantage of a cat's hearing came from the ability to swivel its ears to pin point the location of a sound and human ears were in the wrong place for swiveling.

Even so, Bree was able to take advantage of the other improved senses available to her and from there she was able to determine that there was something in the rainforest that didn't belong there. It didn't smell like the other creatures in the forest. They all smelled like they belonged there. Whatever was watching her had picked up a lot of different scents as if it had been traveling, but beneath it all its base scent was… home. That was probably the most unnerving part. A strange being watching you from the forest should not smell that familiar.

The truck Bree was working on whined and sputtered before the engine roared to life. Bree grinned. Just as she was putting the truck in gear someone popped up next to the driver's side window, then she looked at the sky and went pale. It wasn't dusk anymore, in the night and the full moon was out. A wolf's howl resonated from the forest. Bree felt chills running down her spine as she ran back into the warehouse and sealed the door.

The henchmen were now tied up on the floor. Bane had been brought out and the thing had been put back its cooler. Bane took one look and Bree and began cursing at her in Spanish. Of course Bree could understand every word of it that's to the translation key.

"I thought you left." Robin stated. Bree noticed that he had been joined by Aqualad and Miss Martian.

"You should untie them." Bree said.

"What? You're not going to help them now are you?" Robin asked incredulously, readying himself for a fight.

"No. But their current position brings the term "fish in a barrel" to mind." Bree answered as something slammed itself against the door. "Actually "lambs in a slaughterhouse" would be more accurate."

"What new evil have you brought here?" Bane demanded.

"Oh it's not a "new" evil. It's an old evil. An English werewolf to be precise." Bree replied, looking serious. She could almost swear that she could see her breathe. No, not almost, definitely. The temperature had dropped rapidly and Bree was feeling a sense of dread. She pulled out a knife and began freeing the henchmen.

"Stupid conscience." She muttered to herself.

"You can't just let them go!" Miss Martian protested.

"The choices are let them go or let them die." Bree responded as the lights began to flicker out.

"Don't let it bite you and avoid any cold spots." She instructed. "The bastard brought a friend you won't be able to see."

"An invisible werewolf?" one of the henchmen questioned.

"No. A soul sucking phantom. But there could be another werewolf." Bree answered. "Now if you're going to run, stay out of the way, if you're going to fight, shoot to kill."

"According to legend werewolves are cursed humans. By killing one wouldn't you be killing a human?" Aqualad inquired.

"Yes. A human that would like to torture me to death." Bree growled as she finished cutting Bane loose.

The last light went out, plunging the warehouse into darkness. The door finally gave way and the werewolf burst in, backlit by the moonlight. Bree was glad her eyes were still transfigured.

"It really is a werewolf!" someone exclaimed. Bree felt like smacking the man but there was really no time for that. Most of the henchmen turned and ran. The few braver ones fired the guns they had picked up after Bree had freed then at the werewolf. The wolf dashed forward and began flinging the henchman across the room.

Robin threw a bolo which momentarily tripped up the wolf, but it quickly tore through the bolo. Miss Martian levitated a few crates into the werewolf's path while Aqualad assisted the injured henchmen. Bree pulled out a Glock which was preloaded with silver bullets.

The wolf bashed through the crates, spilling the contents to the floor. It wasn't just drugs kept in the warehouse. There were other items as well. Some were to make the warehouse look legitimate and others were supplies needed to keep the operation running.

Bree fired her gun and the wolf let out and angry snarl. One of its arms was virtually useless since a bullet had lodged itself in one shoulder and it was forced to limp after another bullet ripped through its thigh.

Bree noticed that Robin had frozen up. She saw what the problem was and cursed.

"Expecto Patronum!" she shouted as she rushed forward and pulled the Boy Wonder away from the Dementor that was attacking him. The Patronus from of Bree's dog, Roman, tackled the Dementor. Robin was obviously out of it so Bree shoved him toward Miss Martian just in time to be blindsided by the werewolf.

She crashed through one of the crates, dropping her gun in the process, and found herself in a pile of bottles, some of which were leaking fluid either from the impact or from stray bullets. Bree picked up one of the bottles. Motor oil, and now she was covered in it.

She quickly uncapped the bottle as the werewolf began lumbering toward her. She flung the liquid into the wolf's face. The wolf roared in anger and wiped at its eyes. Bree scrambled away. She slipped in the oil. As tried and failed to get up, since she was covered in oil, someone grabbed her and pulled her up.

"We should run now while it's distracted." Bree told her savior.

"Agreed." Aqualad replied.

Once outside Bree had to dodge a bone breaking hex aimed at her legs. There were two Death Eaters, one was the Grimsley woman from the ship and the other as an unfamiliar male.

"I run and they follow. Sometimes I regret not renegotiating the price." Bree muttered. She evaluated the situation. Two Death Eaters, one temporally blinded in a warehouse, a Dementor was lurking around somewhere, there was still something in the forest and Robin was still sort of out of it.

The best thing to do in this situation was to run. The Death Eaters would follow her. They always followed her, but just in case.

"Your boss will be pretty upset once he finds out you let me get away again!" she shouted before running towards the forest. A cutting curse grazed her shoulder and the Grimsley woman apparated in front of her. Bree disarmed her, punched her in the face and sprinted into the rainforest.

Predictably, the Death Eaters followed. Bree had an advantage over the Death Eaters. With her eyes still transfigured she could avoid branches and tree roots that would otherwise impede her. One of the Death Eaters got in a lucky shot that got Bree in the back and sent her tumbling across the forest floor. She scrambled to get back up and barely avoided getting hit by the Cruciatus curse.

The Death Eaters began firing spells at Bree. She dodged, deflected, and countered them while moving closer to her attackers. She got the woman in the solar plexus and swept the man's feet out from under him then stupefied them both before they had time to recover.

"Wizards really are useless when it comes to alternate means of fighting." She told them. There was a howl in the distance. Bree shifted into her animagus form and disappeared into the forest.

* * *

Bree injuries amounted to splinters from the crates, a shallow cut across her shoulder, and bruises and scratches from her tumble. She managed to treat her injuries on her own and finally made it to Puerto Ayora two days after leaving the warehouse behind.

Puerto Ayora was the largest town in the Galapagos and was located on Santa Cruz Island. Bree spent most of her time as the cat. Being a cat was great. She could loiter wherever she wanted and it never looked suspicious and sometimes people would give her free food or scratch behind her ears. Best of all, no one minded if cats rode the tortoises. They just gawked and took pictures and videos. Bree had to hide her excited grin since she didn't feel like drawing attention to her and cats should not grin.

She visited the beaches and explored nooks and crannies and tide pools that weren't normally assessable to humans. She battled with a few large crabs and poked at the smaller ones. At one point she gave into her instincts and caught and ate a small fish that had been trapped by the tide.

The stray cats she encountered were all somewhat wary of her. They seemed to notice that she wasn't an ordinary cat. The kittens, however, didn't treat her differently from other cats and would often try to catch her twitching tail when she was napping or would try to get her to play. The mother cats seemed to warm up a bit when it became apparent that Bree had no ill intentions but they still kept an eye on her, ready to act if she tried to harm one of the kittens.

On the few occasions she did shift to human form while in Puerto Ayora she bought a few small souvenirs, swam, and ate at a restaurant. After a few days she left the island and headed toward New Zealand. It was really a beautiful country with rolling green hills, crystal clear waters, and sheep. Lots and lots of sheep. In the Odyssey, Odysseus and his men used sheep to escape from a Cyclops. On a Tuesday Bree used a herd of sheep to hide from Death Eaters.

She got away and examined the list of relatives Wes had given her. There were a few that lived outside of the USA. She decided to go back to Japan. She had a cousin who had moved to Japan in sometime after the last family reunion and Bree hadn't known about it.

Blaire Andrews had moved to Tokyo to be an English teacher. She had light brown hair and blue eyes and had taught linguistics in America but had decided to move for the cultural experience. Her husband, Aaron, was a robotic engineer that had been fired since he would often move ahead on a project without waiting for approval from his bosses so he now worked out of a shed in the backyard.

"I'm so glad you could come visit us, but I thought you were too young to be out of school." Blaire stated as she led Bree to the guest room.

"Well, technically I'm not out of school. There was a clerical error so I'm registered as the founder, headmistress, and only student of my own school that I've been attending for the last two years." Bree explained.

"What do your parents have to say about that?" Blaire inquired.

"Well, up until a few months ago I was still going to my old school but then the Headmaster was murdered and his murderer became the new headmaster. He got off due to some technicality because the investigators fumbled up, so they really didn't want me going back there." Bree replied.

"That's terrible!" Blaire exclaimed.

"Yeah, but now I have this great opportunity to travel. It's been a great learning experience." Bree said.

"I suppose." Blaire muttered.

* * *

The next morning Bree found herself at the breakfast table with Aaron after Blaire had gone to work. They had already finished eating and Bree was watching three small robots wash the dishes.

"Why haven't they shorted out?" Bree inquired.

"They're clockwork." Aaron explained, running a hand through reddish brown hair. "People are always looking for the next new technology but sometimes you just need to be creative with the old ones. These are a few of my simplest designs. The first one washes the dishes and passes them to the next who dries them and passes them to the final one who stacks them."

The robot had run out of dishes to clean and Bree picked one up.

"They keep going until they run out of power." Aaron stated. "I have a few more advanced ones for setting the table that stop once the job is done."

"They're kind of cute." Bree said as she but the robot down.

"Our neighbors have bought a few as toys for their children. The kids really enjoy them and the parents like that they don't need to buy batteries." Aaron said. "I wish more people could see the appeal of this kind of technology. It could help with the energy crisis since it doesn't rely on an outside energy source for power."

"I think you'd have to create more than dishwashing robots before anyone would consider that." Bree replied.

"I've been working on that along with other technologies that have been left behind. If I could make it comparable to current technology it could change everything! No longer would we be at the mercy of big oil and the power grid!" Aaron declared. Bree stared. Aaron coughed awkwardly.

"The first step would be to make systems that can act as a backup in case of power failure and then slowly phase out the devices they're meant to be a backup for." He continued, regaining his composure.

"So… You want the whole world to be like one of those fictional steampunk worlds?" Bree questioned.

"Well… yes." Aaron replied.

"Cool." Bree replied.

* * *

Bree visited Nerima as a cat. She sat on the fence of the Tendo Dojo and saw something rather odd, even by Nerima standards. Ranma was in is girl form, going by the name Ranko and Genma was pretending to be Ranko's pet panda and there was a woman Bree hadn't seen before staying at the dojo.

Bree leapt off the fence and into the yard, time to find the source of this insanity. Kasumi and the mystery woman were hanging laundry outside which meant that Bree was free to speak to anyone in the house without being overheard.

She transformed a stretched. This time she hadn't chosen any particular style, she had just seen clothes she wanted and bought them and made an outfit. Her hair was blue with black tips and she was wearing dark blue sleeveless turtleneck with a high and wide collar the she could easier hide her face in if she wanted to and her pants had more zippers than they really needed to. She had decided to wear her favorite boots, black arm warmers with blue accents, and had folded up the red bandana she had gotton from Mama and was wearing it like a headband to cover her scar.

"Hey Ranma." Bree greeted. Ranma jumped and whirled around. He- she covered Bree's mouth with his hand.

"Shh! Do you want her to hear you?" she hissed. Bree bit her.

"Ow! What was that for?" she complained, rubbing her hand. She glared at Bree for a moment before her eyes widened with realization.

"Eris!" she exclaimed.

"Hi." Bree replied dryly.

"But what hap- I mean- where did- who were-" Ranma struggled to form a question.

"Try again when you can form a sentence." Bree replied. "Now, who is the new lady and are you pretending to be a real girl?"

"She's my mother." Ranma mumbled.

"That explains everything. No wait, I meant nothing, that explains nothing." Bree replied.

"When I was really little pops and I signed a contract that said he would turn me into "a man amongst men" and if he didn't we'd both commit seppuku. That's why I can't let her find out about the curse. She thinks that I'm Akane's cousin from the countryside." Ranma explained. Bree stared blankly.

"And other people know about the seppuku contract?" she questioned, keeping her voice even.

"Yeah, Akane, Kasumi, Nabiki, and their dad." Ranma replied.

"And they haven't done anything about it?" Bree asked.

"They've been helping-" Ranma began but Bree cut him off.

"Have they done anything other than help you lie to your mother?" she inquired.

"No." Ranma replied, not really understanding what she was asking. Bree squeezed her eyes shut, pinched the bridge of her nose and breathed in and out slowly and deeply.

"Are you okay?" Ranma asked.

"No. I'm not okay." Bree answered. "I shouldn't have come back. I'm not supposed to do this. I'm not supposed to- I'm not supposed to- I'm not supposed to-"

"Not supposed to what?" Ranma questioned.

"Care. I'm a debt collector; I'm not supposed to care about the people I'm collecting from. I'm not supposed to care about you, your screwed up childhood, your screwed up life, or your abusive parents." Bree snarled.

"My parents never hit me!" Ranma protested. "Well, not outside of training anyway."

Bree opened her eyes and let her hand fall to her side. "I meant emotional abuse." She stated looking Ranma in the eye. "The best word I can think of to describe your father is "unfit." He is a perfect example of what not to do as a parent. All of the problems in your life can be traced back to him."

Ranma got denfesive. "You can't talk about" Bree cut him off.

"Would you raise your children the way he raised you?" she asked. Ranma faltered.

"What?" she questioned.

"Assuming you have children in the future, would you raise him the way he raised you?" Bree inquired.

"Of course not." Ranma answered.

"So why do you have such a problem with me criticizing him?" Bree questioned. "Espeacially when you've made similar statements."

"Okay, but Mom never did anything." Ranma mumbled.

"She let your father take you and is holding you to a seppuku contact that you probably signed before you even knew what seppuku was. There's also the fact that the definition of a "man amongst men" is subjective. Seppuku is less social acceptable now that westernization is setting in and if I were to call the police they would come here and arrest your parents." Bree stated. Ranma went pale.

"You can't do that!" he protested. Bree sighed. She didn't want to fight with Ranma.

"I want to talk to your mother. Just give me some time alone to think." She said.

* * *

A little while after talking to Ranma, Bree had a plan worked out and left the room she had sequestered herself in.

"Okay. Introduce me to her." She told Ranma.

"Right uh, this way." She said and started to walk away.

"Wait." Bree requested. Ranma stoped and looked over her shoulder at Bree. Bree wouldn't look her in the eye.

"I just wanted to say I'm sorry." She said.

"It's fine, it's not like you did anything." Ranma replied. The corners of Bree's mouth twitched slightly.

"I'm sorry." She repeated. "Let's go."

Saotome Nodoka was a kindly woman wearing a kimono. He had brown hair and brown eyes and was very pretty. She could have done a lot better than Genma and it begged the questioned, how in the world did the two get together?

She bowed to Bree after they were introduced.

"I'm pleased to meant of friend of Ranma's." she said.

"I'm American. I don't bow." Bree replied flatly. Nodoka straightened up.

"Oh, forgive me, what's the American tradition?" she asked. Bree stuck out her hand.

"Handshake." She replied, expressionless. Nodoka took Bree's hand and Bree moved their hands up and down once before letting go. Nodoka was obviously unsure what do about Bree's behavior.

"I'm only talking to you because I care about Ranma." Bree stated.

"You do?" Nodoka questioned.

"Not in any romantic sense of the word. Humans are naturally empathic. It's what keeps us from indiscriminately killing each other to get ahead in life. It's not really encouraged in my line of work, but in this case it's a bit too late." Bree responded.

"What is your line of work?" Nodoka asked.

"I'm a debt collector. I'm not supposed to empathize with the people I collect from. I'm supposed to be ruthless and accept no excuses, like bills, or having to feed children. I'm not really good at that yet. Actually I first came to the Tendo dojo to collect a debt from your husband. He sold your son to my Aunt in exchange for a meal. I was supposed to send Ranma to England to work for my Aunt. Obviously, I didn't. I saw the family dynamic at work here and I didn't have the heart to break it up so I settled for monetary compensation and a place to stay for a while." Bree explained. Nodoka looked shocked and may have wanted to say something, but Bree kept talking.

"I came back here today on a whim and found out what was going on and I was shocked, I mean, how can you call yourself a mother if you're going to force your son to kill himself?" she asked. Nodoka frowned.

"You obviously don't know much about Japanese culture." She replied.

"I know that Ranma was too young to understand what he was agreeing to. I know that there was no set time limit and I know that the definition for a "man amongst men" is subjective. I know that no sane mother would force their child to kill themselves." Bree paused as the sound of sirens filled the air.

"I know that we're about to find out what your government's opinion about this is, because I called the police." Bree continued grimly.

* * *

Nodoka complied with the police but Genma had to be tazed. Many of the neighbors came out to see the spectacle and they cheered when Genma was put in the back of the squad car.

Ran_ko _was clenching and unclenching her fists and she watched the police take her parents away.

"I told you not to call the police." She growled a Bree.

"No, you told I couldn't call the police." Bree replied. "Obviously, you were wrong." The boy-turned-girl was in front of Bree before she could react and grabbed her by her shirt.

"I'm not supposed to hit girls, but I'm a girl now too…" Ranma trailed off threateningly.

"My face would cave in." Bree replied flatly. Ranma let her go and ran off.

"That was a horrible thing for you to do." Akane commented.

"Letting Ranma die would be a horrible thing to do. This, this is just painful." Bree responded tiredly, her shoulders sagging. "I did what no one else would, now Ranma won't be forced to kill himself, even if he spends the rest of his life hating me at least he'll be alive."

Akane stepped forward and slapped her.

"That probably would have hurt more if your opinion mattered to me." Bree stated. "It doesn't. I don't have the slightest amount of respect for you. Ranma I respect, his life has been hell and he's managed to get through it without going insane. You on the other hand are a silly little girl who throws a tantrum when something upsets you slightly. What you do to Ranma could be defined as domestic abuse in most cases. God have mercy on the man you marry because you'll end up on TV someday, and not in a good way." Akane slapped her again and then stormed into the house. Bree rubbed her cheek.

"That really should have hurt more…" she muttered.

"You really know how to upset people, don't you?" Nabiki said from behind her. Bree turned around.

"If I cared about that I wouldn't be where I am today." Bree stated.

"Is that why those men were chasing you before?" Nabiki questioned.

Bree just shrugged. "I think I'll go now." She mumbled and began walking away.

"Wait!" Bree stopped but didn't turn around.

"Going to lecture me too Kasumi?" she asked.

"No. I just wanted to say thank you." Kasumi replied. Bree blinked and turned.

"What?" she asked incredulously.

"What you did hurt Ranma, but in the end it was for the best. I'm sure Ranma will realize it too someday." Kasumi explained.

"If you say so." Bree mumbled.

"Goodbye."

* * *

"I'm back." Bree called from Blaire's entryway as she took off her boots.

"In here." Blaire called from the kitchen.

"Is that a rice ball making robot?" Bree questioned when she walked in, pointing at a small copper robot that was forming a rice ball while standing next to a neatly arranged plate of rice balls.

"Yes." Blaire replied. Bree picked up a riceball and found that it was filled with tuna.

"It's good." She stated.

"Yes, I just had to prepare the ingredients and he got right to work." Blaire responded. "It's nice having these little helpers around. It gives me more time to do other things."

"Kind of surprising though, wasn't Aaron working with some pretty advanced stuff before?" Bree questioned.

"Well, yes, but he did suggest looking into older technologies, but since the research was being back by a company looking for advancement, well, it ended up being one of the reasons he got fired. He ended up becoming completely devoted to the older technologies to get back at his old bosses." Blaire explained.

"Ah." Bree said. "Can't even marry into this family without being some kind of screwed up, huh?"

"That's why we love each other. Normal families would take a deeper look into your situation, now wouldn't they? But we trust you enough not to look into it." Blaire stated.

"You mean you trust Wes enough." Bree corrected.

Blaire said nothing.

* * *

The next morning the Tendo Dojo was on the front page of the paper. Bree stared at the article until the words translated.

PARENTS FORCE SEPPUKU CONTRACT ON SON! Yesterday Saotome Genma and his wife Nodoka were arrested. Genma already had an outstanding warrant for charges including assault and theft. His sweet tempered wife had no previous record but was found carrying a katana by arresting officers. The arrest happened after an anonymous tipster called the police.

Bree stopped reading. She knew this story.

* * *

"Are we really doing this?" Bree asked Blaire. They were sitting in a restaurant and Bree was glaring down at the plates on the table

"It's good to try new things." Blaire replied. Bree scowled at her.

"People are going you two are my parents." She muttered.

"Don't change the subject." Blaire replied. "Anyway, it's not all that different from the rice balls and you like those."

"The fish in the rice balls was cooked. This is raw." Bree pointed out.

"Aaron said the same thing at first and look at him now." Blaire said. They both looked at Aaron who had a piece of sushi halfway to his mouth.

"Please leave me out of it." He requested.

"Just try a piece." Blaire insisted. Bree picked a piece and ate it.

"Not bad." She commented. Blaire frowned at her.

"You have to try more than just a cucumber roll." She stated. Bree sighed and picked up a piece of salmon. She eyed it warily before taking a bite.

"Well?" Blaire questioned.

"It's fishy." Bree replied. Blaire sighed.

* * *

Alice wasn't oblivious. She knew damn well that she was being followed. She also knew that the people following her were there to protect her, a fact that was proven when a potential mugger pulled into an alley and beaten up when he targeted Alice. Really, what was the point of running away if your parents were going to send bodyguards/paid stalkers?

At least her parents were getting their money's worth. The longest Alice had managed to ditch her bodyguards was four hours in New York.

Currently Alice was on her way to the west coast. After the Mission city incident things had gotten pretty quiet and Alice felt fairly confident that Bree had left the states. In any case, after the giraffe incident Bree wouldn't be in San Diego and Alice wanted to have her own memories of the city rather than rely on Bree's.

* * *

**Alice will have her own adventures soon. I just need to get things planned out.**


	13. The Boss, The Cat, and Alice

**This chapter jumps around a bit with p.o.v. since the events are supposed to be happening at roughly the same time.**

* * *

San Diego was just what she remembered, for the most part, and really that was the problem. Places like the San Diego Zoo and Old Town would conjure up fond memories that weren't hers. It had been a mistake to go there, no matter how wonderful she thought the city was it wasn't her city. It was Bree's. It was where she was born and where she had lived for eleven years. Alice was born, if you could really consider such a thing a birth, on an island off the coast of England. She had been alive for two years and had spent most of that time hidden away in a school in Arizona.

Alice loved California, really she did, but that was because Bree loved California. When Alice realized this she was finally able to admit something she had been denying for a long time. She hated herself. The Doctor had made her human but that didn't change the fact that she was just a copy.

Everything that made her who she was had originally been Bree's. The way she looked, the way she thought, the way she felt, the way she reacted, all Bree. But Alice couldn't bring herself to hate Bree for that. She wouldn't even exist if it weren't for Bree. If anything she hated her manufactures for the technology they had developed. If it had just worked like it was supposed to… she wouldn't be around to hate the circumstances that had given her life.

She hated herself. She didn't hate Bree. The only time she ever felt like a real person was when she was around Bree, as messed up as that sounds. Alice's mind was an exact copy of Bree's which meant that they knew what the other one was thinking. They had clicked immediately. Bree finally had someone that understood her. She loved her family and friends and they accepted her, but they didn't understand.

To them she was unusual, quirky, and maybe a bit insane, and they didn't have a problem accepting it, but Alice was the only one to see the reason behind the madness. She was the only one who understood what it was like to have something extra inside of your head and Alice really loved the relationship she had with Bree, but it left her conflicted.

On the one hand she had started life as Bree Louise Smith, before she had picked a name for herself. She had enjoyed being at the monastery, except for the parts that were completely terrifying, where she had just been one of two Bree Smiths. Bree1 and Bree2 had both been Bree and now Bree2 was still Bree while Bree1 was now Alice, and she didn't like being Alice. Maybe on some level she longed for the hive mind that the flesh had in its base state. That she had once had in her base state. The feeling of oneness and the connection to all the other gangers that hadn't been completely severed until the Doctor had made her human.

On the other hand, she was tired of being seen as Bree's copy. As a human she wanted to been as an individual, not a pale reflection of someone else. Bree was the original, or more accurately, fourteen-year-old Bree was the original, but not even the one that had been able to keep the name Bree fit that mold anymore. She had become a darker version of herself and Alice hadn't. She had grown up in her own way. She wasn't a copy anymore. She couldn't be a copy anymore, it wasn't fair to either of them.

Bree had learned how to fight and how to run. She could shoot and stab and slash and punch and kick and cast offensive and defensive spells and run as fast she could while her enemies were still recovering. Alice had learned how to fight and how to hide. She could punch and kick and cast some offensive and defensive spells and distract her enemies with illusions while she slipped away. She couldn't copy Bree anymore, but she could complement her. Two heads were better than one right? And Bree could use the back up, but Alice would have to learn more first. An experienced wizard, like the one her parents had hired to follow her, could dispel her illusions. She needed to work on that and on her hand to hand before she could help Bree. Bree had given her life and saved her, and Alice wanted to return the favor, but first she needed to find a teacher.

* * *

Bree picked Star City as the place to start her search for a teacher for a number of reasons. Firstly, the laws regarding the use of magic in front of the non-magical population were lax in any city a member of the Justice League called home. Secondly, her parents didn't have as large of an influence in Star City as they did in other cities. Thirdly, Star City was in California and it was hard wired into her brain to loved California and nothing would change that. Lastly, and most importantly, Bree had never been to Star City.

It didn't take long for her find a teacher. After asking around Star Cities magical district she was directed to a Japanese immigrant named Megumi Fujimoto who was supposed to be "the best of the best" and was said to be tough on her students with no patience for slackers.

Megumi was an old woman with deep wrinkles and silver hair cut into a neat bob. She was on the short side, coming up to Alice's chest. She taught illusionary magic along with a fighting style that made use of it out of her house. The style had supposedly been taught to one of Megumi's ancestors by a kitsune that the ancestor taken pity on and saved it from a hunter.

"For your first lesson I have a very simple task for you to complete." Megumi stated after Alice had finally convinced the woman to take her on as a student. She led Alice to the back yard. Part of the yard was separated from the rest by a brick wall with a single visible opening.

"All you have to do is get to the other side of this maze." Megumi continued.

"Okay." Alice replied. She took five or six steps into the maze and promptly ran into an invisible wall.

"Oh, I almost forgot, here's a little tip: Don't trust your eyes." Megumi chuckled. Alice turned to glare at her but found that the opening had disappeared.

* * *

Alice sat on the ground, leaning on one of the brick walls that made up the maze. She wasn't just resting, she was thinking. It was obvious from the get go that the maze was constantly changing, or at least it appeared to change. Even though she had been told not to trust her eyes it was very difficult not to. Seeing is believing after all and humans are very visual creatures.

So she had closed her eyes, put her hand against the wall and felt her way around. She quickly found herself back where she had started, having walked around in a circle.

After feeling around some more Alice determined that she wasn't in a maze. She was in a walled off section of the backyard that contained six freestanding walls arranged into two rows of three. All she had to do now was find the outer wall and feel for the opening.

Once she was out Megumi had her do it again, only this time the walls inside the not-maze had been rearranged. And then Megumi had Alice do it again and again and again and the last time Alice had to go through the walls hadn't just been rearranged, they were moving. And that was just day one.

* * *

"Think it's broken." Alice muttered as she gingerly poked her nose.

"Nonsense. You'd had to be hitting the walls much harder for it to break." Megumi replied, handing Alice an ice pack.

"Tell me what you did wrong on your last walk through." She commanded.

"It took me too long to figure out that the walls were moving." Alice replied, putting the ice pack up to her nose.

"You relied too much on your sense of touch and you expected the walls to stay put." Megumi responded.

Alice frowned. "I couldn't rely on sight." she stated.

"No, you couldn't rely on what I was showing you. Tomorrow you will learn how to take back your sight." Megumi stated.

* * *

The next day involved the maze again. Megumi had Alice sit in the middle of the maze and close her eyes.

"Now what do you feel?" Megumi asked.

"Uh… A light breeze?" Alice answered uncertainly.

"Wrong." Megumi replied. "You're using the wrong sense."

Alice scowled. "You asked me what I felt, not what I heard, saw, smelled, or tasted." She stated.

"You need to use your sixth sense." Megumi replied.

"Like the movie?" Alice questioned dryly.

"Magi have six senses. Sight, smell, touch, taste, hearing and magic." Megumi explained. "That is what you need to use."

Alice blinked. "You want me to use my magic to feel?" she clarified.

"Yes. Now close your eyes and focus on the energy inside of you." Megumi ordered. Alice did so.

"Once you have it, push it outward." Megumi instructed.

"Shouldn't I have my wand out for this?" Alice asked. Megumi snorted in distain.

"No. You rely too much on that stick already. Western wizards are all convinced that they can't do anything without their wands, this is a weakness. Wands are just tools. They make the work easier but are not necessary to get the job done." She explained.

Alice didn't reply and tried to do as instructed. She pushed her magic out enough to feel the blades of grass and the dirt. Megumi smacked the back of her head and Alice's magic withdrew.

"What was that for?" she exclaimed.

"You need to push it into the air, not the ground!" Megumi reprimanded.

"It wants to go into the ground!" Alice replied.

"The magic inside you came the earth and when you push it out it naturally tries to connect you to nature, which can be useful, but it's not what you're learning now." Megumi replied. "Now do it again."

Alice frowned and closed her eyes again, this was going to take awhile.

* * *

It wasn't until halfway through the next day that Alice was finally able to do as Megumi had instructed. It had been difficult to fight against her own magic, but Alice was adaptable. Not because Bree was adaptable, Alice had her own kind of adaptability. The Doctor had made her body human, but her magical core, the invisible part of her that refined the energy her reserves took in was still that of a ganger.

Gangers had the ability to grow and change like no human could when pushed, Jenny had proven this, never mind how monstrous the result was. Alice's magical core had retained this quality and so she was able to force her magic to change. She reached out and felt what Megumi had wanted her to touch, a layer of magic over the surrounding area.

Having accomplished her goal Alice grinned proudly, then fainted. The effort she had expended forcing her magic to change had exhausted her.

* * *

Over the next few days Megumi had Alice practice tearing down illusions again and again. Alice had graduated from sitting with her eyes closed to identifying and removing an illusion while walking by and Megumi still insisted that she could do it faster.

"You know, most students would have complained by now." Megumi commented after Alice had, once again, exited the maze

"Really? About what?" Alice questioned.

"I haven't actually taught you any illusions yet." Megumi pointed out.

"I figure it's easier to go along with your teaching plan than it is to fight with you." Alice replied. Megumi gave her a calculating look.

"Fine, fine. You've become quite skilled at tearing down passive illusions, let's see how you do against dynamic illusions." She stated before disappearing in a swirl of leaves.

Alice had been taught the difference between passive illusions and dynamic illusions. It was really quite simple. Passive illusions stay put. Dynamic illusions move. A brick wall where there isn't really a wall is the most common passive illusion. All a wall does is sit there and the same goes for an illusionary wall. No one really questions whether or not it's a wall they just see it and think "oh, I can't go that way" and move on. The same goes for other stationary objects.

Moving objects are an entirely different matter. You have to keep the movement looking natural and consistent otherwise your target will catch on that something's not quite right. A caster with enough skill and confidence can salvage the illusion by turning it into a hallucinatory experience. Of course a skilled and confident caster would be unlikely to make such a mistake in the first place.

Dynamic illusions were much harder to tear down than passive illusions since the magic moved along with the illusion making it much harder to grab. The dynamic illusion Megumi wanted Alice to tear down was a cat. Anyone who has ever tried to catch a cat that doesn't want to be caught can tell you what slippery little devils cats can be. Megumi's illusionary cat was no different and Alice was force to chase it down in the maze while tearing down passive illusions and avoiding mud puddles left by the previous night's rain. Megumi's lessons had gone from repetitive to downright mean. By the end of the day Alice resembled a mud creature more than a human being.

* * *

Bree followed Ranma's story on the news in the days after his parents were arrested. Genma was being held without bail since he was a flight risk, Nodoka was being carefully watched since she had been carrying around a sword to decapitate her son with for more than ten years, and the whole family had been ordered to get therapy, separately that is.

There were interviews conducted as reporters visited Nerima. Everyone wanted to know more about the mysterious Eris and a description of her was being passed around. Bree decided to go to Harajuku to do some shopping.

* * *

At the end of her shopping trip Bree had adopted a new look. Her hair was done up in pigtails held in place by grinning Cheshire cat barrettes. Half of it was dyed magenta and the other half was purple. She was wearing a pink and purple striped shirt, a skirt with alternating pink and purple layers, fingerless gloves (one pink, one purple), pink and purple striped stockings, and purple boots, and she was carrying a heart shaped messenger bag that was bigger on the inside.

Since she was in Harajuku she didn't really stand out that much, to humans anyway. To spirits she stuck out like a lighthouse in the dark. Some of them remembered her scent for her last trip and came after her, others got caught up in the thrill of the chase, which led to Bree's current predicament.

"I'mgonnadie. I'mgonnadie. I'mgonnadie." Bree chanted as she ran for her life. The spirits chasing her were entirely inhuman. Spirits with eel like bodies with a single giant eyeball replacing their faces, spirits with more limbs than she could count, spirits with masks instead of faces, and many more that she couldn't get a good look at because she was too busy running away.

Something made out of smoke wrapped around her ankle, tripping her. The spirits began shoving each other out of the way to get at her. She quickly shifted into her animagus form to slip away while they were distracted, seconds later she was snatched up by something with tentacles.

"Myaah!" she cried out in terror. Her fright turned into confusion as she began falling. She landed on her feet and looked around in confusion. Four boys, one with slicked back hair, one rather ugly one, a short one in black, and one with red hair. Bree blinked, she knew these people from somewhere, didn't she?

…

Oh, they were the boys she tricked into fighting Ranma! Yuusuke, Hiei, Kurama, and Kuwabara. Once again the spirits were quickly dispatched.

"Why would a bunch of spirits go after a cat?" Yuusuke questioned. Bree didn't even get the chance to look in her direction when Kuwabara got in her face.

"Hey kitty, kitty." He cooed. Bree, now thoroughly disturbed, backpedaled until she ran into a wall.

"Get your ugly mug back here Kuwabara, you're freaking it out." Yuusuke reprimanded.

"How do you know you didn't scare it!" Kuwabara yelled.

"I haven't been anywhere near it!" Yuusuke shouted back. Now Bree could have transformed back into human form and explain everything, or she could slip away while they were distracted. The group seemed to have a hero complex and would likely try to help her… So running away while they were distracted it was then. Before she could bolt she was picked up by the scruff of her neck. She was soon looking Hiei in the eye. Irritated, Bree responded in the only way she could think of. She bit his nose.

Hiei responded by dropping her and then kicking her into a wall. Slightly dazed Bree got up and found the Kuwabarra had started yelling at an indifferent Hiei. Bree changed back.

"You're a bastard, you know that shorty?" Bree grumbled as she rubbed the back of her neck with one hand and held her ribs with the other. Yuusuke and Kuwabara stared in shock, Kurama looked surprised and Hiei may have lifted his eyebrows slightly.

"You bit me." Hiei replied.

"You picked me up by the scruff!" Bree exclaimed.

"You're a cat!" Kuwabara, having finally found words, exclaimed.

"No, I'm a human that can turn into a cat. There's a difference." Bree replied, still holding her ribs.

"Wait a minute, Eris?" Yuusuke questioned.

"That's the name I gave you." Bree stated dryly.

"I thought your hair was blue now." Kuwabara said.

"She's obviously changed it since her description went up on the news." Kurama deduced.

"Yeah. Big shopping drip today. Forgot about the "all you can eat" sign hanging above my head." Bree said.

"How can you forget about something like that?" Yuusuke asked incredulously. Bree shrugged.

"Been pretty busy, what with the kidnappings and all." She replied.

"You mean the people who were chasing you." Hiei stated.

"Them, then the drug dealers in Columbia, though they won't be doing that again." Bree replied.

"We need to talk." Yuusuke stated.

"Thought you'd say that. Here's my answer. No." Bree responded.

"But you're in danger!" Yuusuke exclaimed.

"I'm aware." Bree deadpanned. "Now it's getting late so I should be getting back before my cousin freaks out and calls they police."

"And what's going to stop anyone or anything that comes after you from hurting your cousin?" Yuusuke asked.

Bree glared. "No one I care about is going to get hurt. I made sure of that." She growled.

"What about the people you don't care about?" Yuusuke questioned.

Bree shrugged. "Not my problem." She answered.

"Well I have a problem with it!" Yuusuke exclaimed.

"Then go to London and cut the bastards off at the source." Bree replied.

"What?" Yuusuke questioned dumbly.

"If you care so much about people you can go London and get rid of them. Though I highly doubt it'd be as easy as you seem to think it will be." Bree told him.

"Whys that?" Yuusuke replied.

"Well, the werewolves for one thing, and the Dementors, and the fact that they've infiltrated the government… Oh I almost forgot the worst part. Their leader split his soul t pieces so that even if his body was destroyed his spirit would linger until he got a new one, which has already happened once already, but if you still want to help I know some people you could contact, just don't try to help me, your guaranteed to fail." Bree explained.

"What makes you so sure of that?" Kurama asked.

"I'm the one who guaranteed it." Bree replied. "There is a shop in Tokyo, the woman who runs it can grant any wish, but it is a shop so naturally there has to be compensation, something of equal value to the wish. I made a wish, the price was named, and I agreed to pay it. I'm still paying it, and there's nothing anyone can do about it."

"So what did you wish for?" Kuwabara asked.

"It's obvious, moron. She wished for her family's safety." Hiei replied.

"Family and friends, actually." Bree corrected.

"So what did you pay?" Kuwabara questioned. Bree smiled. It didn't reach her eyes.

"Every pain that would have been inflicted on the people I care about will instead to inflicted upon me." She stated.

The boys looked stunned.

* * *

Vincent Smith did not normally have much involvement with the hiring of his dock workers. The dock workers were the lowest on the proverbial totem pole. They just needed to be able to move things from point A to point B. Normally he left the hiring of low tier to the HR department, but normally they didn't receive job applications from people whose lives they had ruined. This situation was not normal.

Dudley Dursley had applied for a job. The name had been immediately flagged since his father had been blacklisted.

The Dursleys had been forced to move to the slums after Vernon lost his job and found it increasingly difficult to hold on to a new one. He had been blacklisted by Lisa after everything about Harry's treatment while under the Dursley's roof had come to light. Because of this Vernon could only get the lowest paying jobs. He got fired from those due to his feelings of entitlement and Petunia was forced to support the family while Vernon turned to alcohol.

Petunia soon fell ill, partly because of her demanding workload and partly because of the squalid condition of their new home. Now Dudley was forced to take up the role of provider. He had taken a few seasonal work but5 was having trouble finding a steady job because of his limited education.

Vince decided to take pity on the boy and had him brought to his office.

Dudley Dursley was no longer the round bullying lump of fat he had been as a child. He had lost the fat and gained muscle in its place. He didn't bully anyone anymore; he didn't have time or the energy to do so.

When Dudley was brought into his office Vince stood up to shake his hand. Even though he walked with cane and had lost a lot of his muscle mass and had yet to completely regain it, Dudley was completely terrified of him. Vince's armed bodyguards, Ben and the newly appointed Chloe, probably didn't help matters much. Vince had Dudley sit down as he sat down himself.

"I understand that you've applied for a job with the company." Vince stated.

"Yes sir." Dudley replied.

"Your father can't hold a job and your mother is too sick to work, correct?" Vince asked.

"Yes." Dudley repeated.

"Your family used to be better off before your father lost his job at Grunnings and the abuse of your cousin came to light." Vince stated. "You can have the job if you still want it after what I'm about to tell you. I decided that it would be better to be completely honest with you know than to risk the consequences of you finding out later."

Vince pulled several files out of his desk and presented them to Dudley.

"What's this?" Dudley questioned.

"Every instance of abuse one Harry James Potter suffered at the hands of your parents. Or at least the ones that were uncovered." Vince answered.

"Why are you showing me this?" Dudley inquired.

"If your parents had not abused Harry than they would not be in the position they are in now. Your family's downfall after Harry was taken from your household was not coincidence, it was retribution."

* * *

Bree was, once again, running for her life. Spirits had gathered outside of her cousin's house, unable to enter thanks to the salt lines Bree had laid down. The left Blaire and Aaron alone when they went out, but the moment Bree had left the safety of the house they had gone after her. Now she was running toward the nearest magical district. She ran down an alley a through a wall.

The mass of spirits bounced off the wall and Bree was finally able to stop running. She slumped against a wall, not the fake one she had run through, but an actual wall, and panted heavily. After ten minutes had passed she got up and took a look at her surroundings. It was a residential district. The houses were all traditional looking but all looked a bit off because of the magical plants and yard decorations. The adults were all dressed in traditional clothing but the younger generation seemed to lean more toward modern Japanese style, like what you might find in Harajuku.

Bree quickly found Sunset Station which was part of a special subway system that catered to the magical population, despite this; it looked like any other subway. She took it to Sakura Station near one of the magical shopping districts. The streets were lined with stands and shops and the scent of various foods wafted through the air. Bree soon found the shop she was looking for, a shop the specialized in repelling spirits.

She picked up a simple bracelet made of wooden beads inscribed with kanji and guaranteed to hide your presence from even the strongest evil spirit. Afterwards, she visited other shops in an effort to restock some of the supplies she had left at the Hoover Dam. Before she knew it the sky had grown dark and paper lanterns rose into the air of their own volition to light up the street.

Bree returned to her cousin's house.

* * *

Days later Bree was getting uncomfortable. She had been had been staying in the same place long enough for the Death Eaters to catch up with her and she was getting restless. That night she told Blaire that she would be leaving in the morning.

"Where are you going to go?" Blaire asked. Bree shrugged.

"I don't know yet." She replied. Blaire frowned. There was a small explosion from the shed outside and Aaron ran past the window screaming and on fire towards the garden hose.

"He must be experimenting with steam power again." Blaire sighed.

"Seems that way." Bree agreed, having grown accustomed to seeing Aaron on fire over the past few days since she had commandeered the kitchen table and a few of Aaron's tools in an attempt to build a sonic screwdriver.

"I'm okay!" Aaron exclaimed as he walked past the window and back toward the shed he worked out of, presumably to salvage what was left of his latest creation and figure out what went wrong.

The next day left with no particular destination in mind. Really, she knew that she shouldn't wander aimlessly, but she wanted to go to Yuko's shop and that was how she had found it last time. This time, however, she hadn't gotten anywhere interesting. She stopped to rest in a park and got soda form a vending machine. As she sat on a bench sipping the soda she looked around. It was a nice normal everyday sort of park. Nothing about it stood out at all, except for the cherry trees.

They weren't in bloom, it was the wrong season for that. In fact it wasn't even the trees that had caught Bree's eye in the first place, it was the shadows of the trees, one shadow of one tree. The shadow was going the wrong way.

It wasn't Vasta Nerada, she was sure of that. There would have been two shadows if it was. It was just one shadow. All of the other objects in the park had shadows going in the same direction, but the tree's shadow was off, more to the right than the others. It was odd, but not particularly exciting, so Bree left the park and continued wandering.

* * *

A cat had crossed Bree's path. It was gray with black stripes and had big yellow eyes. It walked a few paces away from her than turned and meowed at her expectantly. It wanted her to follow it, so that's what Bree did.

She followed down several darkened alleys until she pushed through something an found herself in another magical shopping district, not all that different from the last one she had visited. This time Bree had no idea where she was. As she looked around for a street sign she noticed two things. It was dark when just minutes before it had daytime and the shoppers that crowed the streets and when in and out of stores weren't human. She had followed a cat into a shopping district for spirits.

She turned to go back, but instead of an alley there was just more of the same street. Bree began walking and looking for an exit, instead she found the cat sitting in front of a small shop tucked between to larger store fronts. The cat went inside, Bree followed it once again.

The shop felt cramped, it was so filled with items for sale that there was barely room to move. It wasn't very well lit and the cat has disappeared in the shadows. Bree bumped into a table, knocking a small vial off of it. She caught it before to hit the floor.

"Good reflexes!" someone called from the darkness in the back of the shop. "You break it you buy it!"

A man walked out of the shadows. He looked human but had a foxlike face.

"That must be your entire marketing strategy then, with that way your shop is set up." Bree commented. The man cackled.

"Aren't you a cheeky one!" He exclaimed.

"Hm, but what's this?" he said, taking the vial from Bree's hand. "I thought I put this away, it's not for sale."

"Why's that?" Bree asked.

"The price." The man answered.

"How much is it?" Bree questioned.

"No money for this one, just something of equal value, and no one has been able to bring me something as valuable and this." The man explained.

"What is it?" Bree inquired.

"Phoenix tears." The man replied. "One or two drops can heal any injury. Drinking the whole vial and you could save someone on the brink of death."

"And no one has been able to bring you something od equal value." Bree stated. The man nodded.

"What about a story?" Bree asked.

"It would have to be some sort of great epic." The man replied. Bree grinned.

"I think I have just the one." She said.

* * *

Bree walked out sometime later with the vial of Phoenix tears in her bag. She was surprised to see that she had walked onto a rather normal looking street instead ending up back in the spirits shopping district.

The cat appeared again. Bree followed it. They went down several side streets and into another alley. The cat disappeared into a hole in the wall too small for Bree to fit through, as a human that is. She shifted into her animagus form and passed through the hole easily. She found herself in a forested area. The other cat a disappeared again so she sniffed the air hoping to pick up its scent. The odor she picked up wasn't what she was expecting. It was same creature that had been watching her in Columbia.

Something in the forest laughed before the presence of the other cat disappeared completely, leaving Bree alone with no idea where she was, and no way back. It started raining.

* * *

**Aaron isn't just some random character with an amusing quirk. His work will get somewhere and, as any good Doctor Who fan can tell you, there will be clockwork robots in space.**


End file.
